Tears for the Tearless
by Masquerade99
Summary: Do you remember? Together we've cut out the winter sky, breathed the thousand spring petals, touched the summer sun... Glided with autumnal leaves. You must remember, because everything's written in your immaculate mind. Because memories don't forget you.
1. Chapter 1: Born to Be Dirt, Crimson

Hello all the people, readers, flamers and trolls out there! So, where should I start from? Mm, the little voice inside my head is just telling me to apologize for having deleted my story so suddenly and without saying anything... So, here it is: I'm really, really, really (Multiply this by one zillion times) sorry. Nevertheless, you know, I did not feel so good with the plot, the characters, the whole story in general... Thus, with my highest displeasure, I decided to delete it. Said that, before you send me cute voodoo dolls of me pierced by blunt rusty brooches, I'd like to tell you a couple of things. First of all, I'm feeling I must talk with you about a problem with relevant weight, a curse I've seen spreading here and there everywhere on . It's even worse than 100-words long stories or the appearance of Gary Stu, Mary Sue, or whatever the hell is their name, characters in a lot of stories I've taken a look at. Given that I- and I say this frankly :D- haven't got any chance as a writer in an hypothetical, possible future, and that this story is actually written just for fun (So it doesn't serve neither as a test nor a "springboard"), in my opinion reviews are really important and probably the most interesting works here, even more than the actual stories. Besides, come on, let's face it, receiving a good (Or bad too, but it must be honest and sensible) feedback wouldn't satisfy anyone :D? To cut a long story short, review. Review, review, review. I don't care if you're brutal or kind (Even if it's actually better the second option xD)... My only interest is that you're totally honest. Screw the rest. And who knows, maybe you'll even make me change my mind about the real skills I may conceal (Pfffffftmoahahah... Highest level of hypocrisy evah!). Now, let me introduce the two or three remaining people who are still reading (Lulz) to the story you're going to read and -hopefully!- submit some reviews. Those who have already read through my previous story know, more or less, what I'm talking about; to the others, I'm going to explain it now, for good. First off, I didn't choose to write a Lion King fanfic just because this movie effectively offers many "blank spots" (Dunno if this expression exists, too lazy to search through dictionary :D) which seem to be waiting just to be filled by the most oddly assorted stories... I chose the Lion King because I simply thought about the deep affection I feel towards this movie (The most beautiful movie that Disney has ever made, in my honest opinion). Skipping Kopa's story, whose fanfic are... Uhm, like one or two million (Speaking kindly, I like them :D), the context more open, on which the writer's thoughts wander till the most absurd elucubrations, is surely the "past": what happened before the first movie. And that's of course what I want to write about, using as protagonist the character who charmed me the most: Scar. Scar (Or Taka) is absolutely fantastic, and would probably be the most promising character of the whole event... But he's SO disgustingly inhuman (Spare me lame jokes, I perfectly know that he's actually a lion xP). His completely twisted wickedness, in spite of being absolutely bewitching, is also a little... Uhm... Well, it's not really credible. I'm not a fan of villains who go mad for nothing, or for the weakest clichè in the entire story of humanity (He's the king, I kill the motherf****r and then take the power/ I'm abused by Daddy and my brother... Bohoo, I hate them/ And so go on...). In short, I don't like it. I know that actually the Lion King must follow closely the same plot of Shakespeare's Amlet, though... I can't help but dislike it in any case xD... Thus, don't marvel at Taka if he's gonna be OOC a lot (Only in the first part, however). In fact I'll change the cause of Scar's... Scar (LAMEEE!!!) and his deep-rooted hatred towards Mufasa. Hope that those people, who are truly interested in going through the story and arriving at the fateful chapter where those event will occur, will be satisfied with what I'll show them, or anyway will appreciate my effort xD. However, don't worry; I'll do my best to keep in their respective personalities all the various original characters. Regarding my language (Eyes rolling), you may know that I'm not a native speaker; on the contrary, scratch that: I'm not even a speaker, and thus I'm not used to write in English. My store of linguistic knowledge is fair and tending towards poetic terminology. I admit I look quite pretentious while using, sometimes, slightly abstract expressions... Please, tell me if you like this type of narration, or not. Moreover, my greatest Achilles' heel is, well, is undoubtedly the structuration and the subsequent rielaboration of the characters' interactions... In other words, I suck in writing conversations. (What the... Did I just managed to write FOUR words which end with -ion in the same sentence? O.o)

Okay, I guess I'm writing too much (My umpteenth flaw...). Before I forget, thanks to Dylan (Aquaman36) for being my betareader, thanks to the people who are going to read and review this story, and -of course- thanks to all the people that had reviewed my old story. I swear, guys, your suggestions haven't been wasted ;D... Now, if you have had enough patience to read through this shitload known as preface (Thanks again :D), shall I show you a small introduction before the actual story? "Yeah, of course you can, douchebag..." Oookay... I do hope you'll like this, more than that allucinating delirium I've written before, in any case xP...

Have fun!

-Sebastian

* * *

... A nightmare. A cold nightmare without an end.

Cruel rain flogged my aching back, nailed me down with its freezing drops; its watery cadence resounded in my ears over and over again, an elegy sung out by the mournful earth. Overwhelmed with exhaustion, I collapsed into the ground, my pelt, my legs, even my face, got completely drenched with mud and slush. Every time I saw an acacia, or any other possible shelter, I managed to dismiss that tempting idea of crawling there and curling up, against the endurable dampness of the terrain, safe from the downpour. I could not stop; I had to go on, to go away, away from that nightmare, whose blackish, bloody tendrils kept trying to swallow me, my soul, my mind.

_He... He killed him._

Vermillion tears blended with the bespattered water beneath, in which my paws already got stuck, ensnared. It was just my fatigued eyes, that was why I was crying, nothing else. It was just due to the wounds I had all over my body. So, why was I running off? I should go to him, hug him, love him. Because it was just a nightmare, it wasn't really happened, was it? Yes, yes, it was just a long, long nightmare. No, no, no...why were more tears streaking my face? Why was I still crawling, like the lowest worm on earth, away from home, away from him?

_He killed him. He did nothing...to save him._

My hinder legs betrayed me and staggered, unsteady, as I felt another spine-wrenching pang pierce through my head and explode through my left eye. Still more drops of crimson life dropped from my cheek and fell on the flooded ground, their slight splashes elusive, smothered by the turmoil of the rainfall. No, he wasn't alive any more. He was dead, carrion amongst carrions, victim amongst victims. I sobbed, I gasped, and realized, and felt the weight of everything on my shoulders. More tears ran down my cheeks and merged with that fetid quagmire from which I managed to pull out my paws at every step, polluting it with the self-pity of a stray coward.

_... It's only his fault. Not mine, not mine... I could not..._

By then, when I was about to collapse and finally let myself slide slowly into the soft, warm embrace of unconsciousness, with my strength and will completely drained away, I saw something which resembled a smallish bundle lying on the murky ground. With hesitant movements, I approached that thing, semi-immersed in the enveloping muddy water beneath, and peeped furtively at it, consigning momentarily to oblivion the lurking, greedy reminiscence of the nightmare. As soon as I noticed that what I was looking at was actually a huddled, male cub, whose soaked pelt received, besides the violence of water drops, the gore which was dripping from my chin, I heard a loud gasp escaping from my lips and filling the air thick of mist and breaths of dusk.

All I obtained from the cub was a moan, horrendous in all its sound of suffering.

"Ah..."

My eyes widened. He was...he was alive?

I lowered my head, hesitant; black and crimson flowers began to bloom before my eyes as I made that sudden movement; my head cried out a mute scream made of pangs and blinding pain. Yet I gritted my teeth, and held on; I had to see. I had to see if…if life was still flowing through the cub's emaciated frame, or not.

Relief, transitory and fragile, like a plume of glass.

He was still breathing, weakly, his sighs more similar to a death rattle than a normal breath...in any case, that youngster was done for. Enough. That was enough. I had no intention of being again a spectator of another parade of death. I was about to leave him and let him be, but abruptly he opened his eyes...and his enlarging pupils stared at me. My blood froze as I looked straight into those mellow-brown colored orbs...then he let out another sound, a chewed question, a plea. The desperate plea of a dying child.

"...Who...are you?"

* * *

_**Tears for the Tearless**_

**---1. Prelude---**

**Chapter I:**

_**"**__Born to Be Dirt__**"**_

**Part I:**

_"Crimson"

* * *

_

Imagine a picture. A picture of the past. Can you truly do it?

Imagine...the morning sun, from which its lukewarm light and its silhouette, made of sinuous tongues of fire, burst through the pink streaked azure, blossomed from behind the feeble horizon as its flaming petals opened and depicted spectacular sceneries and magnificent choreographies whose protagonist was a continuous play of light and shade which moved and changed repeatedly. Within fleeting moments, the celestial disc rose over a flax colored prairie, a plain dotted by proud acacias and settled for kilometers between two chains of towering mountains: a demesne commonly known as the "Pridelands" or, more formally, the "Kingdom of Mohatu". Finally, the first light skimmed over that yellowish, maroon and golden landscape, which effectively filled the aforementioned picture: a magnificent, colossal picture, whose painter went apparently too far with the use of autumnal colors. But nobody actually cares about that: exaggeration is the peculiarity of any artist...and Nature is the greatest, most imaginative and most uncontrolled artist of all. Only Spirits could define an exact number of the plethora of natural, wild beauties whom that place, the Pridelands, contained inside its flourishing bosom. First of all, you could easily notice the expanses of African violets, whose hypnotizing colors could mesmerize anyone. Thus, if your glance would keep going further, you could notice the amazingly high baobabs and their thick foliages; or maybe, you could admire the luxuriant domes of miombos, or the rosy and golden orchids, which gave out and scattered their sweet aroma all around. The quivering heart of Mohatu's kingdom, centre of all that pulsating life, was a round, large stretch of water, clear and motionless, whom animals usually used to placate their thirst. Yet that was not the most interesting -if not the most important- place in the Pridelands. And don't even try to peek at the east, at the dry immensity of that desert. There's nothing there, except for scorching heat, dried burlesques of trees, and rotten corpses half-eaten by insidious insects or greedy vultures. Neither west nor south offered better views to admire; the shattered, gloomy western territory known as Outlands -whose cursed name inspired suffering and recalled old bonds, now completely broken- and the unknown, southern kingdom, whose sky was covered by fearful, rumbling clouds. Yes, look away, far away, and glance at the north. A massive mountain, vaguely shaped in the form of an L, with its rocky walls bathed in sun rays, stood high and proud: Pride Rock, the Pridelanders' home, where the future Kings were introduced to all the savannah inhabitants. Now, look carefully at the cliff which emerged from the feet of the mountain and was held up by a mound of huge rocks. Look there, into the wide opening on the wall, through the darkness that lay inside And listen closely.

...And so, everything began.

* * *

_Leave me alone._

Despite his stern statement, the serpentine shadows kept crawling towards him and surrounding his body from all directions. Woeful, repetitive dirges, which murmured the same word like an haunting chorus, pierced through his mind and injected him with the bile of what he always wanted to erase from his mind. He gritted his teeth, angrily.

They were calling him.

_Leave me alone!_

Blood...

_No!_

Laughter.

_Stop it!_

Then, reality presented itself disguised as a sudden, extremely annoying wallop that reverberated against his ribs in painful waves. _What the...? _He blinked for a couple of times. But it was too late: he had already opened his watering eyes. He slowly raised his head from the cold ground... And sighed. He had wept again. And probably cried desperately, too.

"What the...?"

The cavern was immersed in the usual darkness, a forgotten scrap of the night which elapsed quickly as soon as the first light rose high-handedly from behind the horizon and repelled the murk back to its gloomy domains. Yet the sunlight was penetrating inside the cave as well, white and golden ethereal blades which pierced through that thick, black mantle forgotten by the moon. Soft murmurs and breaths of the sleeping lionesses echoed through the cave, sounds that embodied the repetitive and usual security of his pride. _Lazy sleepyheads, _he thought amusingly, well knowing that those would probably keep going until late morning. Then, he felt another abrupt stroke hit his ribcage, but this time it was much softer. He looked down, surprised, and saw Uru lying against his chest, wriggling slightly under his arm wrapped around her girth.

"Uru...?" He raised his arm, as, despite the lethargy that weighted on him, his expression grew concerned. "...Wha-What's wrong?"

She jolted, not expecting her husband's voice awaking her from her hectic-like dream; then the lioness raised her head and glanced at him, at his frowned face framed by shadows, with that irresistible apologetic smile of hers. "S-Sorry... I didn't want to wake you..." Her voice trembled for a moment. "Ahadi, I-I think there's a problem..." The lioness fell silent and bent her head sideways, and that simple gesture made her crimson eyes shining softly in the darkness. Ahadi loved those eyes so much, loved their impossible intensity, as if some divine entity had picked up two rubies from the earth's bosom and set them in the lioness' eyes-sockets. "Is it just me, or did I actually elbow you...?"

"You did. Twice." In response of her mortified expression, Ahadi simply shook his head and chuckled softly. "... So?" Seeing the confusion in her face, he quickly added "...The problem you were talking about?"

The lioness sighed. She seemed either enormously worried or incredibly filled by joy barely held back…but which impression between the two was right, he could not tell. "All right, I...I have some good and some bad news."

"... Mm. I'm all ears."

"The contractions are getting stronger."

"Ah...r-really?" Ahadi raised an eyebrow, as his face turned into a mask of indecisiveness and doubt. So, she hit him during sleep because of the sudden rise in pain. But what did more pain for Uru actually mean? Ahadi believed he might know the reason, but he chose to not say anything about it. He preferred to be free from incertitude before getting overexcited. "And...and the good news?"

"That was the good news."

"Oh."

With much effort, Uru managed to hold back a laugh. "Please, Ahadi...don't look at me that way." She lowered her head and looked down, hiding her red, glistening eyes in the shades that surrounded the duo. Ahadi, still puzzled by her moves, followed her look, and found himself at staring at his wife's swollen belly, which protruded strangely out and abruptly interrupted the usually slender line of her figure; a warm goblet which contained the embodiment, the floral archetype of life, opulent of hope in its eventual, final blossoming. And then, finally, Ahadi understood, as a radiant smile widened on his face and softened his countenance. His paw brushed against Uru's stomach, carefully and tenderly, as only a lover's caress could be.

"You mean..." His solicitous voice trembled for a second. _Holy Great Tapdancing Spirits...!_

"...I-I don't know. But," Uru looked up at him again, smiling as well. "I think it's finally time."

"Heyheyhey, wait a minute!" Ahadi stood up abruptly, making Uru look confusingly at him, and started moving in a circle around her, barely holding back his excitement. The upcoming light of the morning, which was slowly penetrating inside the lair, made his bright green eyes shine vividly, and his fangs, long daggers of white porcelain, reflected the light back, like a beackon of his own bliss. "Uru...you...we..." The lion swung about and gulped a couple of times as his mirthful gaze fixed upon her lying form. "It...it was supposed to happen next week, right...?"

"Ahadi."

"...We-We have to find someone who can help you..."

"Ahadi..."

The lion began to walk back and forth, as his features kept turning from pure exuberance to suffocating terror, and vice versa, looking more like an half-crazed feline on drugs than a King. "...Wait, Uru, don't worry, I'll fix this. So, um, let's see...maybe...maybe...we could it by ourselves…it shouldn't be that difficult after all. It's just pulling out a--"

"Ahadi!"

"Ye-yes!" He jolted at the same time with several lionesses, awoken and surprised by the unexpected rise in Uru's voice. "...Y-Yes, my dear...?"

Uru sighed softly. An overgrown cub, that was her husband. "Listen, I'm not going to give birth yet, so calm down. Don't act like a big child." Then she looked around. "Speaking of children...I still have to tell you the bad news."

"...Oh, right." Ahadi managed to assume a serious expression, in spite of the contentment that kept rising inside his chest like roaring tides in a never-ending, golden storm. Nothing -_nothing_, even the worst news- could get him down, in that moment; when he spoke again, the lion actually sounded milder than he effectively wanted to. "... Shoot!"

"I can't find Mufasa anywhere."

"Huh? He's not here?" Ahadi's excitement faltered for a brief moment, and sudden concern took its place. The lion stared at the dark blanket that surrounded them, trying to locate his son's resting figure. "... Mufasa! Buddy! Hellooo-oo?" He called out loud, hoping for the cub's usual, immediate grunt of reply; instead he received only annoyed guttural moans and flame-darting glares from the sleepy lionesses around him.

"Ahem...maybe he's outside." Uru suggested in a whispered tone. Noticing a murderous will shining in her many companions' eyes, she beckoned at the large entrance of the cavern, from which beams of light were slowly penetrating inside. "Come on, go out and find him. Spirits know what he's getting himself into right now."

"Nah...he's probably just playing somewhere, Uru. Let the kid have his fun..." Ahadi's mouth twisted into a smirk as he feigned a lascivious look destined to his wife. "...Just like you do with me."

The lioness rolled her eyes. "Oh, now that's funny. Not." She glared at her husband, smiling as well, and waved a paw nonchalantly towards him. "Now, go search for your son. Or do you want to get whipped?"

"Ho-oh...want to test out? Not a bad idea at all, my dear..."

Uru snapped the air with a giggle, sticking her tongue out at her grinning mate. "Clear off!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Ahadi exclaimed as he stood at attention, with his chest puffed up and his right paw firmly placed on his frown, while some hair of his pitch-black mane fell in disheveled locks before his green eyes. He headed for the brightened outlet to the outdoors, but then he stopped abruptly and swung around to look at the lioness once again, with a slight sneer on his face. "...I'm really looking forward to see you with a whip when I return." Uru simply raised a paw and waved slightly at him, with a malicious smirk mellowing her sharp features.

"Don't stay out too late...I don't want you to lose the way back to home."

"Tch!" The lion snorted as he approached the light-giving entrance. "Don't get too big for your paws, ma'am. I'm not a child."

"I love you too."

A wide smile broadened on Uru's face when she heard Ahadi's hearty laugh echoing loud through the air, before his shadowy figure finally disappeared into the sheet of amber light that covered the entrance like an elegant, elaborate curtain made of golden silk.

* * *

Under the faint luminosity that twisted through the landscape like a insidious snake through the thick grass, the small cub stood still, enjoying the mild feeling of cool wind caressing his amber-orange pelt. His mahogany eyes, sprightly and full of unending curiosity as only children's eyes could be, sparkled when the waking sun touched the cub's still drowsy face. A noisy yawn escaped from his throat as he stretched sluggishly.

"Mufasa!" A deep voice resounded, like a mellow note of bass, just behind him. "What are you doing here?" In spite of the delicacy of the tone, the cub jolted in mid-stretch; slightly hesitant, he turned round and almost knocked his muzzle against Ahadi's curious face. The adult lion was lying down with his head, framed by his tousled mane, black as a bottomless pit, resting on his folded forelegs. His two fiery green eyes stared amusingly at Mufasa as a grin widened on the larger lion's face. "Don't tell me my little fluffy wad actually had a nightmare..."

"Whaaa…?!" A mocking noise escaped from Mufasa's throat as he stuck his tongue out at Ahadi, grinning affably. "Shut up! I'm not the _little fluffy wad_ of anyone, Dad."

"Ho-oh, really? I don't think so." Ahadi chuckled as he raised a large paw and ruffled his son's short tuft of mane hair. Mufasa groaned as he tried to get rid of his father's endearment, but that futile effort did nothing but make Ahadi, whose black-tufted tail twitched back and forth, laugh even more.

"Da-Darn it! Stop it, Dad!" Mufasa griped as he finally managed to slip away from his father's clutches. "Why don't you go bother someone else?!" he mumbled as he licked his paw and then passed it over his tousled tuft in order to press it flat. Still sniggering in a low voice, Ahadi stood up and simply shrugged, the deep blackness of his mane glittering vividly like a prismatic onyx hit by the light.

"Well, as much as I'd like to bother your mother, she's not feeling really good just now."

Ignoring his disheveled hair for a moment, Mufasa stared at his father with a confused look. "What do you mean?" A glimmer of realization crossed through his mind immediately after, as soon as he noticed the sparkle of overflowing bliss in his father's bright eyes. Pure delight was practically oozing out from Ahadi's pores; nevertheless, an odd shadow, imperceptible but still present, was slowly forming on his face. Apparently, Mufasa did not notice it, or managed to hide his curiosity. "...It's the...cub?"

"Yup." Ahadi shrugged sluggishly and, wanting to fool his son, put on a sullen look, picturesquely followed by a dramatic, yielding tone. "Your mother and I think it's almost time..." Mufasa raised an eyebrow as he understood almost immediately that his stupid father was trying to fool him.

"...And you're happy, aren't ya?" Mufasa interrupted him, with a knowing smile.

"_Happy_?" Ahadi echoed his son. "I'll have to put up with whining, sleepless nights, and, worse than anything else, your mother's hysterics...again." He snorted. "Yeah, I'm _bloody ecstatic_."

Mufasa's tail twitched a couple of times as the cub sniggered. "Come on, don't try to fool me! At least admit that you can't wait for it. You wouldn't live without sons to torture."

Ahadi smiled down at his child. "...Yes, I probably wouldn't." Then he turned his head and looked far away towards the spacious savannah, whose plain, yellowish landscape was basking in the upcoming sun. The rising star finally emerged completely from the fading horizon, and even though it was still weak the sunlight flooded over the dry prairies, and made the insubstantial grass blades shine like threadlike gold. _The last day of the season..._, the lion thought with an ounce of melancholy. Mufasa bent his head sideways, confused, and stared questioningly at his father.

"Whatcha thinking about? You look _sooo_ serious."

Without turning his head, Ahadi glared at his son out of the corner of his eye._ Hehe..._ "...I'm just thinking about how annoying you _kids_ could be."

"_Kids_?" Mufasa repeated slowly, narrowing threateningly his eyes. He absolutely hated when someone reminded him of his young age. Needless to say, the person who kept vexing him all the time was always his father. "You're not talking to me, are ya?"

"Well, do you see any other _kid _here...?" Ahadi turned round to face his son; the haughty grin that was stamped on his face annoyed the hell out of Mufasa, who began to growl loud enough to be heard by him.

"Be careful with words..."

"Make me do it."

"..._Oldie_."

"Wha...how dare you, squirt...!" But Ahadi didn't have time to finish the phrase. In fact, Mufasa stood up and assumed an offensive position, with his small body lowered on the ground and his ears flattened against his head. Then, with a playful, throaty growl, the cub pounced on his father; Ahadi, being caught unawares, exclaimed a simple "Whoa!" before getting knocked down. When the lion opened his eyes, he saw Mufasa sitting on his chest and sneering at him. The strength that Mufasa was applying on Ahadi's chest astonished the adult lion. Moreover, the cub's claws, in spite of being slightly blunt-ended, were intertwined with Ahadi's fur, and that did nothing but made his son even more stuck to him.

"Ha! That was fantastic!"

"Jeez..." Ahadi stared intensely at his son, mildly surprised. "Mufasa, that's not... Whoa! Look!" The lion raised a paw and pointed at something behind his towering son, assuming a mask of bewilderment. "What the hell is that...?!"

Mufasa snorted. "That beats everything! Do you really think I'm even going to fall for the biggest clichè of all the jokes in history?"

"No, seriously, Mufasa! Look behind you! It's _awesome_...!"

"What...?" Mufasa finally turned his head, confused. But Ahadi didn't care about that; the pressure on his chest diminished and his son's claws withdrew unconsciously: that was the important thing. _Now. _Ahadi thought with a grin as he took advantage of the moment of Mufasa's bafflement; the lion rolled over with a lissome movement, making Mufasa yelp suddenly and tumble away. "Haha, _that _was fantastic, squirt." Ahadi sneered at his son, who stood up slowly, still bewildered, and began to shake off the dust of the ground from his pelt. Then Mufasa glanced briefly at the abyss beneath the cliff they were standing on.

"You...you...I could've fallen from here, and..."

"Doesn't change the fact that I won. Ha."

The cub's eyes popped out from his head as Mufasa stared incredulously at his father. "Y-You're freaking insane!"

"...You took the words right out of my mouth, sweetie."

Ahadi and Mufasa turned round suddenly, at the same time, as soon as they heard that mellow voice which cherished their senses with its sweet sounding. The same voice which Ahadi fell in love with when he heard it for the first time. That angelic, devilish, loving, teasing tone, which resounded up in the air and broke the silence, crystalline and perfectly...imperfect.

And Ahadi adored it.

"Uru."

"Mom!" Mufasa ran towards the nut-brown lioness who was just emerged from the veil of darkness which covered the entrance of Pridelanders' lair. Uru's red eyes, a typical feature of Mohatu's blood line, shone with a vermillion sparkle as the sunlight hit her face. The lioness, when her son finally bumped into her leg and hugged it, lowered her head and gently nuzzled him.

"'Morning, little one." Then Uru lifted her head to look at Ahadi, who was approaching her, with a wide smile on his face. "What were my boys doing here?" she added, raising an eyebrow, questioningly.

"Nothing special." Ahadi purred as he nuzzled her. "Rather, how are you? Does it still..." A rapid, intense glare from Uru cut him off abruptly; then the lioness glanced briefly at Mufasa, who was staring curiously at her, and looked again at Ahadi. _Go to him...go to Elimu. _That was what her imploring look seemed to say. Ahadi raised an eyebrow as he stared for a couple of seconds at those red eyes... Then he nodded imperceptibly, as if he got the silent message.

_Don't worry... I'll do it._

When she noticed her husband's approving nod, the lioness managed to hold back a sigh of relief. _He understood... _Uru watched her son Mufasa with a mix of preoccupation and anxiety. She -and Ahadi as well- feared that the cub could get nervous or, even worse, scared for his mother's safety due to the forthcoming labor. In fact, Mufasa didn't have the faintest idea about what the labor actually consisted of, and no one could imagine how the young cub would act if he knew of his mother's inevitable suffering.

Without saying anything, Ahadi suddenly stepped back and turned round, towards the narrow, winding path which directly faced the open savannah. Mufasa gazed at him in surprise. "Where are you going...?"

The lion stopped. "I..." He turned round and winked at the questioning cub, smiling affably. "Morning rounds. King's duty, ya know."

"Oh! Can I come too?" Mufasa's ears lifted up in the air as a wide grin broadened on his face. "Please...?"

"Eeh... Sorry, kiddo, not now. Next time, okay?" Then, seeing the sincere disappointment of the cub, he added in a softer tone "...You should stay here with Mom, right? I entrust her to you. That's a great responsibility, isn't it?"

Mufasa turned his head and looked back at Uru, whose mild expression comforted him a little bit. When he looked at his father again, Mufasa puffed up his chest, as if the unexpected task was effectively charging him with pride. "All right, Dad! I'll do my best!"

"Good boy." Ahadi winked at him again; then, casting a final glance over his expecting wife, he turned round and followed the path down to the savannah, running as fast as he could. "See ya soon...!" His deep voice echoed through the air for a last time before the lion disappeared among the high, yellowish grass.

_Elimu... Elimu might help us... _Uru thought while she stared at the elusive figure of his husband slowly camouflaging in the mono-colored immensity of the prairie as minutes passed. Therefore she shook her head with energy. _No, he WILL help us.

* * *

_

_**One hour later...

* * *

**_

"Hello...?" Ahadi pattered on the knotty, bark-covered trunk of the massive baobab, which was towering above him, with the back of his paw. "... Anyone there?" The upcoming sunlight of the day glided smoothly over its emerald-green foliage, irradiating the oblong leaves with a translucent halo. The mighty tree's branches, whose labyrinthine structure threw subtle shadows on the ground beneath, wavered slightly as soon as the wind woke up and whispered through their soft leaves.

Some time passed before Ahadi, whose patience was definitely almost at an end, finally heard a shrill voice calling him. "Ahadi...? Ahadi! Hey, Elimu, that's Ahadi's voice!" Then another voice, curt and sharp, resounded from the baobab's inside.

"... So what are you waiting for, kook? Show him in."

Ahadi cracked a smile as he heard that brusque tone cutting the air like the blade of a knife. _Jeez, it's been ages since we last heard from each other. I hope he's changed...a little, at least. _Finally, a well-known face emerged from a small cavity of the trunk; it was a baboon, covered by dark-grey fur, which became darker and more shaggy around the neck. Speaking of the face, its boniness made him look frail, but that initial expression could deceive anyone quite easily; in fact, the baboon was firm, steady, and patient enough to bear Elimu, that pain in the ass. His cheeks were ploughed by curious, blue lines, which met at a large, vermillion-colored nose. His eyes were narrow and yellowish, like glistening amber.

"Ahadi...!"

"Rafiki!" Ahadi's smile widened as he opened his arms. "Long time no see, buddy!" Rafiki grinned too, then stepped out from the narrow hole and hugged the lion, patting his back amicably.

"What a surprise! How are things going at Pride Rock? Everything's okay, isn't it?" The baboon pretended a stern look. "Why haven't you ever tried to contact me?! What about Uru? And Mufasa too!"

"Ah, don't worry 'bout that, I'll take him here someday." When he looked up at the baobab, Ahadi frowned slightly. "The butterball is still alive, isn't he?" The lion glanced at Rafiki, trying to hide an amused look. "I think I heard him kindly calling you 'kook', ya know."

Rafiki sighed softly. "Uff, lately he has become a real pain... someday I'll probably strangle him in his sleep if he keeps torturing me like that, I swear." Ahadi stared at his friend with a hint of empathy shimmering in his bright green eyes.

"I see...in any case, I'm gonna take away your beloved master for a while. I suppose that's okay with you."

"Are you kidding? That's fabulous!" Rafiki turned round and motioned to Ahadi to get closer. "I bet you can't wait to see him, can you?" The baboon asked, sneering a little. "This only been five months?"

"Five and a half."

"And a half, that's right." Rafiki slid into the narrow cavity from which he had arrived, merging with the shadows inside the massive baobab. "It's a lot of time, in any case!"

"Mm. The less Elimu and I see each other, the better. By the way, tell me," Ahadi looked into that tiny hole, in which his head plus the mane could barely get. "How the hell am I supposed to crawl into this? I'm not a _monkey_."

"I'm a baboon...and, guess what, you're a moron." Rafiki's voice echoed through the coarse bark, sounding slightly annoyed. He always lost his temper whenever someone called him 'monkey'. "Just use de normal entrance."

Ahadi rolled his eyes. "And you won't come with me. That's not nice... You're the host, after all."

"Elimu's the host...and you probably know what he would say."

"Mm...yep, you're right." Ahadi stepped back from the cavity and circled around the massive baobab until he finally found the large, resin-dripping gash that crossed the majority of the wood, looking like a deep, bleeding wound of the tree itself. The lion winced as he managed to avoid the occasional drips of glutinous fluid that were gushing out here and there.

"...Man, I hate this place," he muttered softly. Then, with a final step, Ahadi finally entered the room where the infamous Elimu lived. The King cracked a smile once again when he smelled a fleeting scent of flowers, plant juices, and a sweetish, redolent aroma.

The room, whose wooden floor was dotted with blotches of sunlight, was already pretty small, and the countless stacks of fruit shells, knotty logs, and thick leaves took up the remaining space. Ahadi stumbled over a small pile of wooded twigs, but luckily for him he managed to regain his balance; then the lion looked around and noticed Rafiki, who was doing some shamanistic oddity at the back of the room, and Elimu, who was sitting sprawled on a internal protrusion of the hollow tree.

He was an incredibly large baboon, whose wrinkled skin was covered by a soft, olive-coloured pelt striped by thin grayish-white stripes. Contrary to Rafiki, Elimu's muzzle wasn't creatively coloured with blue or red features; it was a flat, deep black which contrasted sharply with the brightness of his eyes, two auburn orbs which shimmered so vividly that they looked like real yellow topazes. A long, knotty stick leaned against his side, and a wide necklace,made of scarlet garlands and reddish seeds of mango (another noticeable things that monkeys, baboons, or any type of primate could create thanks to the odd deformations of their hands that they called 'thumbs') dangled against the baboon's chest. Elimu, despite the sudden entry of Ahadi into the room, completely ignored the lion and moved his callused left hand, which was holding a tiny, folded leaf, next to the other...and poured a small amount of black powder into the tiny crease between thumb and forefinger, forming a thin, dark stripe.

"If it isn't Ahadi..." Elimu mumbled as he raised his right hand to his nostrils. "Mind if I ...nah, of course not." Without another word, the large baboon deeply inhaled the charcoal black powder. Ahadi cracked a grin despite his concerned expression, but didn't say anything. "What do you want? I thought you were too busy to come here."

_No, he definitely hasn't changed. At all. _"Jeez, Elimu, you haven't seen me since Mufasa's birth, and now you're talking as if the last time we've met was yesterday." Ahadi stepped forward, smiling affably. "Be good, come here and greet your old friend."

Elimu gestured at the lion with indifference. "Pffft, "old". Compared with me, you're still sucking your mother's teats." His amber eyes shone as he finally stared at Ahadi. "I'm still waiting for your reply, by the way."

"Well...it's Uru."

Rafiki, when he heard the Queen's name, peeked curiously at Ahadi, while Elimu kept a straight face. "Oh, Uru...it's been ages since I last saw Mohatu's daughter. She should come here someday, I really like her. More than you, in any case." Elimu grabbed the microscopic, tubular leaf and poured some more blackish dust on the side of his thumb. "What's up with her?"

Ahadi's smile widened. "She's pregnant, ya know."

"Again? Congratulations. One wasn't enough?" Despite his sarcastic tone, Elimu's eyes opened wide in surprise and, for a fleeting moment, he nearly spilled the powder stripe on the floor. "And, tell me, are you going to stop with two sons, or will you keep wearing that poor lioness out? That's a bit cruel…motherhood is harsh."

"Come on, be serious." Ahadi raised an eyebrow. "I need your help."

"I'm dead serious, boy." Elimu snorted the dark powder through his nose once again and shut his eyes tightly. Then a violent coughing fit shook the baboon's stout body abruptly. "D-Damn Spirits...this stuff's bloody hard." He jabbered in a low voice. When he heard Elimu's mournful cough, Ahadi couldn't help but sigh softly.

"I can't believe you still like that...s_tuff_. I thought you got over it."

"See if I care." Elimu snorted loudly and took another drag, as if he was defying Ahadi. "It's myself that I'm killing, anyway. It's none of your business…but why are we talking about this dreadful habit of mine?" The baboon, whose expression grew more and more imperturbable, started entwining his forefinger with the thin thread of his necklace, as if it was a meaningless, usual gesture of everyday.

A mild grin escaped Ahadi as he gazed at the sitting baboon. "You finally put that on yourself...even so."

"I still love her."

"Really? I thought you _hated_ her."

"Love is nothing without hate. It would be only mere adoration..." Elimu sighed softly. "But I probably should have hated my wife more. Maybe then she would never have abandoned me..." His dark eyes shimmered for a moment, but that fleeting second of inner deep feeling quickly elapsed. "I'm not ready to put her behind myself...nor the wedding gift she gave to me, by the way." He loosened the necklace around his forefinger. "But, weren't we talking about Uru?"

Ahadi really wanted to talk with Elimu about the baboon's ex-wife, who abandoned him months ago due to unknown reasons...or at least, that was what Elimu said to him; yet Uru's situation was, needless to say, way more important at that moment. "She's probably having the baby just now, Elimu. I want you to help her give birth." Despite his inner agitation, Ahadi managed to grin again. "Like the last time, with Mufasa. Do you remember?"

"Of course I do. I'm not that slow." Elimu stared at the lion with a concealed look; some time passed before he spoke again. "Rafiki," he said in a colorless tone. Rafiki, who was busy blending some strange powders into a wooden shell and surreptitiously eavesdropping on their conversation at the same time, hurried up the piles of medicinal items and approached his master.

"...Yes, Elimu?"

"Go with Ahadi."

Rafiki goggled at him, and was about to compose a reply when Ahadi intervened abruptly and interrupted whatever the baboon was going to say. "Wait a second! Elimu, that's not..."

"Ahadi, _that's not _your business." Elimu clasped his stick and banged it on the ground, near Rafiki's feet. "And you, what the hell are you staring at? Move your ass and get the medicines, stupid pupil!" His master's abrupt movement caught Rafiki unawares, and made him jolt in surprise. Then the younger baboon replied with a hesitant tone.

"... E-Elimu... I don't understand."

"Kiddo, are you deaf, or simply an idiot? Just do what I've said. Period."

Rafiki turned round his head and looked back with an imploring glance at Ahadi, who merely shrugged and stared helplessly in return. Therefore, Rafiki slowly lowered his head and sighed compliantly. "All right," he mumbled after a while as he moved straight towards the exit from which the morning sunlight oozed inside the hollow tree and later on came outside without adding any other word.

Ahadi raised an eyebrow questioningly as he glared at Elimu, and finally spoke again after that awkward conversation between master and disciple had tell. "So...could you tell me what's wrong with you? I wanted _you _to help my wife, not Rafiki."

"I thought he was your friend."

"He is, but..." Ahadi hesitated, making sure that Rafiki had really gone away. "...Let's face it, Rafiki's still a novice, isn't he? I want the best for my family. And, as far as I know, _you_ are the best."

Elimu sighed softly and then made Ahadi totally bewildered when he cracked a smile. "For Spirits' sake, Ahadi...you've no idea. He's..." A hard lump in the baboon's throat stifled his words and drove them back; apparently, Elimu was embarrassed for something. And Ahadi had no the faintest idea about the reason of it, until the baboon finally added in a lower tone "…Rafiki is probably the most talented shaman I've ever seen in my life. Which is not exactly what you'd call 'brief'."

Being still astounded by the sudden (and surely unusual) grin of the large baboon, Ahadi's suspicious expression mellowed a little. "So...you want to test him..." Seeing that Elimu kept a straight face, the lion proceeded. "Right?"

"...I believe in him, Ahadi. And you should do so as well." Elimu winced when he realized he had consumed the cocoon completely. Then he threw its useless remains away, outside the tree. "Moreover, I'm too old for these types of things. Rafiki needs some experience, and I don't want him to waste his time here, with me." As soon as Elimu fell silent once again, Rafiki, panting and carrying a showy bunch of multicolored plants, some of which concealed the baboon's shadowy expression, entered the room and came nearer to his master.

"Here...I...am…oof…"

Elimu raised an eyebrow as he glanced briefly at the flowers his disciple was holding in his hands, then spat on the ground. "You forgot the painkiller, imbecile. Do you want Uru to suffer unimaginable agony?" The large baboon brought his tense snout close to Rafiki's semi-hidden face. "Are you a sadist? Do you love to see pain, you sick freak?"

Rafiki's eyes popped out from his head as he managed to keep his somewhat malicious thoughts of exactly who he _would_ like to see in pain hidden. "No, of course no-"

"Then go back and get that goddamn painkiller, or I swear _you_'ll need it instead!" Elimu grabbed his wooden, knotty pole. "Just to give you a hint: imagine this stick. Got it?" His dark eyes narrowed menacingly. "And now, imagine that tender arse of yours."

Rafiki gulped for a couple of times. "D-Don't worry, I got it." Then he turned round and ran away, faster than before. Ahadi managed to not roll on the floor and burst out laughing, and stared at Elimu instead.

"...What are you staring at?" The large baboon mumbled when he noticed the gaze of the lion focusing on him.

"I'm just wondering...if you admire Rafiki so much, why won't you tell him?"

Elimu rolled his eyes. "Ahadi, I'm sure you're a good King, and -speaking hypothetically- if I want to become the sovereign of a territory, I'd surely come to you to ask your advice. But, for Spirits' sake, don't even think about giving me advice on how I should discipline my apprentice. Dunno about you and your son, Matusa..."

"Mufasa."

"...But I think that type of approach is the best for everyone. Rafiki learns..."

"Ha-ah."

"...And I have my little, personal, sick fun. Thus, we're both happy, as you can see."

Ahadi shook his head, chuckling deeply. "You're a monster."

"Mm. Interesting point of view. Actually, the only one here who eats corpses is you. Dunno who's the real monster."

"Yeah, whatever you say..." Ahadi turned round and looked outside the baobab. "Rafiki's coming back, by the way." The lion glared at Elimu once again. "You're not gonna tell him off again, are you? You know perfectly well he hates that."

Elimu simply shrugged. "Please, Ahadi, be fair. I'm not that bad." Then he looked out a slit in the wood and located Rafiki. "Now I suppose it's useless to say 'Better late than never', right?" he mumbled, deliberately loud enough to be heard by his wheezing disciple.

Despite his overwhelming weariness, Rafiki found enough strength to raise his head and stare daggers at his asshole of a master. _Only Spirits know what I'll do to you the next time, stupid fat son of a..._"... Erhm, Elimu, I'm sorry. But you know that's not the season of the-"

"Stop blabbering lame excuses and wait there, kiddo. We adults need to talk." Then, before Rafiki could even think about a suitable reply, Elimu drew back and turned round to look again at Ahadi. "Well, Ahadi, I guess it's time for you to go back…Uru probably needs you right by her side, right?"

Ahadi's eyes widened slightly as he heard the words veiled with chastisement. _I'm... I'm having another son. _It was incredible that actually he almost forgot that; but now, a wave of blithe feelings, blended with pure, simple anxiety, overwhelmed his mind and made him shiver with emotion. Ahadi had already gone through that experience, but anyway he had felt the same way when Uru was expecting Mufasa, long time ago. And he would feel like this in any case, even if he had passed through that for three, four, five, infinite other times. Simply because the emotions, the feelings, the fear, the bliss...they were just small parts of a bigger game: the simplest, and still the hardest, game of all. Parenthood.

"...Right?"

The lion jolted abruptly, awakened from his thoughts by Elimu's throaty voice. He started stammering something confusingly. "...Y-Yes, I..."

"Tch. Never mind." Elimu shrugged again and, to Ahadi's utmost surprise, took off his garland made of vivid crimson seeds with a slow, hesitant motion, as if he had never done it before. Then, puffing a little, the large baboon stood up and hobbled towards the confused lion, with his precious necklace slapping in his left hand; Ahadi didn't dare to move, not even when Elimu raised his heavy right hand and put it on the lion's shoulder. "Listen," Elimu began with an imperious voice, in order to prevent Ahadi from interrupting him with his blabbering words. "Give this to Uru. And send her my congratulations."

Ahadi stared astonished at the dangling, vermillion necklace the baboon was holding in his hand. His green eyes got damp for a fleeting second. "Elimu...that's..."

"...That's just a bad memory that will haunt me forever. I don't want to keep this useless thing any more..." Elimu shook his clenched fist and made the threadlike trinket clink faintly. "I'm sure it will be more useful for you than for me. Now take it, damnit."

The lion lowered slightly his head, and allowed Elimu to fasten one end of the lace to the other around his neck and, despite Ahadi's bulky, cumbersome mane, the baboon finally managed to do it. Then, without hesitation, Ahadi stepped forward and hugged Elimu, who started sputtering and wriggling under the lion's tight grasp.

"...Wha…the hell...!"

"Thank you for everything, Elimu..." Ahadi's voice faded away from emotion for just a moment. "You're a real friend." The baboon stopped thrashing about and stood still; in spite of the hearty gesture, Elimu held back the grin that was about to widen on his face, and grunted impolitely.

"Mm. Lovely." Elimu muttered as he patted Ahadi's head. "Now back off, otherwise your family jewels'll get _patted_ a bit harder. I can do it, from this position."

Sniggering a little, Ahadi stepped back slowly and loosened his hearty embrace; then, with a last glance full of gratitude, he turned round and rapidly went outside where Rafiki was waiting.

"Let's go, Rafiki," he called out to the baboon. "We're running out of time."

Rafiki, in answer to the lion's suggestion, nodded promptly and was about to follow him, but he stopped as soon as he felt Elimu's gaze focusing on him. Rafiki looked back and saw his idle master fiddling with a tiny, dried leaf. "Gimme your best wishes, Elimu." The large baboon turned his head and stared straight at his disciple, whose yellowish eyes shone intensely, with a defiant look. Then Elimu snorted and looked away, crumbling the dried leaf with a rapid movement.

"Don't make a mess as usual, kiddo."

When Elimu raised his head again, he noticed that there was none at the threshold of the entrance. _They're gone, _he thought as he looked down at his closed fist, whom he opened abruptly, scattering the microscopic, veined fragments he was still holding into the air. Elimu tried to find consolation by caressing his dear necklace, but then he realized too late he didn't have that any more. A subdued, elusive sigh escaped from his lips, and strewed away, a lone, painful breath amongst breaths of awakening...

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Okay, tell me what you think 'bout this first "thing" (Which, effectively, isn't even the first chapter, because it's only a part of it. Great start, uh?) and don't forget to review. I'm watching you. (O.O)

Thank you really much for reading this, hope you liked it. See ya in 2010, folks. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


	2. Chapter 1: Born to Be Dirt, Padri

Hello everyone. First off, many thanks to all the people who have read and reviewed, very helpful and interesting. Obviously, many thanks to Aquaman**52 **(dang xP) for his betareading work too. Then... well, actually I haven't anything else to say. Behold the second part in all its mediocrity. Hope you like it, though. :D_**

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Tears for the Tearless

**Chapter I:**

_**"**Born to Be Dirt**"**_

**Part II:**

_"Padri"_

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_**At the same time as Ahadi's journey...**_

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His eyes, with pupils surrounded by shimmering orange circles, shut immediately when he looked straight into the rising sun, whose flaming crown heightened and blazing tongues of fire lengthened through the sky, now clear and limpid like a spring of celestial water, as minutes passed, slowly yet inexorably. His breath was slow, regular, as if there wasn't any issue lying heavy on him; nevertheless, his heart beat faster and faster and he couldn't help but feel strangely upset. Because of what, he didn't know. This was a promising day to have some fun before the cold season, which usually annoyed the hell out of him with its freezing days and its prevention of any activity besides hanging around inside the lair. The day would be great, but there was something...something wrong. His father had gone away...but just for a couple of hours, right? Nothing would happen to him...probably. Rounds always went off without a hitch, because his father, in spite of not being a native, was respected by every single inhabitant of the Pridelands, even by the worst ones. Even more than Mohatu.

His throat tightened slightly as he gulped quietly. Moreover, his father had given him the important task of watching over his mother...

He stared at her. Well, she looked…okay? She was pregnant, but everything seemed bloody settled right with her. Nothing new under the sun, in any case. But then why the hell was he feeling that suffocating sensation that brought a hard lump to his throat? There was definitely a hint of mystery in that glance between his parents a moment before, but he couldn't figure out what exactly it was. With an abrupt pang squeezing his pumping heart, he looked away from his mother and stared at the horizon. A gentle breeze blew gently through his pelt and caressed his delicate skin, then went beyond him and expired far away in invisible spirals. He took a deep breath and let the cool of the morning flow through his enlarging nostrils and then down his throat.

"Mufasa?"

"Hmm?" He blinked a couple of times, confused, as his mother's voice abruptly took him back to reality. Then Mufasa turned his head and looked at the brown lioness with a puzzled expression occupying his features. "...What?"

Taking her time with an air of utter peacefulness, Uru gazed at the surrounding multicolored landscape…her beloved home, since that day when King Mohatu, her deceased father, found it by pure chance while wandering helplessly and searching desperately for a safe territory where they could finally start living as a family once again. Since...no, it was just too painful to remember. Her father...

The lioness shook her head and looked away from the morning sky, still streaked by bands of the same breathtaking colour and dazzling brilliance as rose quartz, and gazed at her son, her vermillion eyes shining softly. "Are you worried about something?"

"Um... " Mufasa coughed, slightly embarrassed. "I'm…I'm just...no. Never mind. I-I'm fine," he added later, putting on an affected expression of optimism. Uru wasn't so easily fooled, though, especially by her own son.

"Come on. I won't bite you, I promise," the lioness promised as she pursued the cub with an affable smile. Uru's grin encouraged him a little, so Mufasa looked straight into her eyes, with less hesitation penetrating his words.

"I...I can't help but feel like..." He cleared his throat with a noisy cough. Damn, why was it so hard to say? "...Like something bad is going to happen." Mufasa lowered his head, as if he was apologizing for something he hadn't even done.

Uru's smile faltered for a brief moment. "Oh, Mufasa...why?"

Despite his apprehension, her reassuring words comforted him, exactly like those lullabies his mother used to soothe his fears with during those rainy nights in the middle of spring. But Mufasa kept his unsure expression anyway. Uru sighed as she noticed her son's anxiety, then moved slightly sideways and showed her swollen, protruding belly, bringing it nearer to Mufasa. The cub looked up at the lioness, confused by her sudden movement. "What are you waiting for?" Uru grinned, beckoning to her stomach. "Touch it."

"_What_...?"

"Just do it!"

Mufasa shrugged and hesitantly raised a paw, moving it nearer and nearer to his mother's jutting belly. As soon as he touched her, Mufasa felt the warmth and the softness of Uru's brownish pelt against the bare palm of his small paw. The flaming silhouette of the sun behind them rose up in the air with a slow motion, hitting their backs with its welcoming light and tracing their strangely thin, elongated shades on the firm ground beneath their paws. Mufasa felt like a complete idiot, standing there and waiting for...wait a second, what was he waiting for?! He didn't even know that!

The cub was about to ask his mother, but then...

"Oh!" He exclaimed, jolting by surprise. What the heck was that? "It...it kicked..." Mufasa drew back his paw, still staring at Uru's stomach in awe. He had never thought that a being that hadn't even been born yet could actually move inside their mother's womb.

"_He_ kicked, dear."

"He?" Mufasa bent his head sideways, confused. "But how do you know it's a male? I heard you and Dad talk about it all the...well, since you were expecting."

"Who knows...maybe it's just my maternal instinct." Uru winked at him. "But I guessed when I was still pregnant with you, so..."

"...I should trust you." Mufasa completed her sentence, laughing softly. His previous anguish had subsided by then and been replaced by a sudden stillness, probably due to his conversation with Uru. Her musical words relieved the cub's sadness and warmed his soul from inside, a perpetual, everlasting fire which would never stop crackling.

"Exactly."

"Wait a second..." The cub looked at his mother again, and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Why'd you make me do that?"

Uru simply smiled cryptically and turned her glance towards the savannah once again. By then the sun was high up in the azure, cloudless sky and its amber spears of light pierced through the last rosy remains of the past daybreak and chased them away. Only temporarily, of course. because when the next day came the sky would be covered by the same layer of roses and cotton, which will be promptly riddled by the same perforating sunrays, over and over again, since the world's birth and until the very end of it. Despite its somehow sadly cyclic essence, that was anyhow a beautiful spectacle. A parade of creation and destruction, formed by the luminous phenomena of the Nature itself.

After a pause of deep silence, the lioness spoke again, calmly and with care. "I know how much you're worried, Mufasa. About me and about Dad."

"H-How...I'm...?" The cub stammered, unsure of what he should or shouldn't say. Maybe he might ask her about that fleeting, odd glance his parents had shared before his father ran away...

_To "make the rounds"…yeah, _he thought slightly sarcastically; he wasn't even sure if his parents were actually concealing something important under their usual serene expressions, or not. So he concluded his failing phrase with a hasty "...Ahem."

His mother rolled her eyes in an amused way. "Mufasa, there's nothing to be concerned about. Your father's just gone away for a while, and the baby and I are fine." Mufasa winced, wondering if his mother was really fine or she was lying to him. Then the cub shrugged again as he saw Uru's mellow countenance, and managed to smile, feeling a bit better.

"O-Okay, Mom...if you say so."

Uru nodded approvingly at him, then turned her glance towards the spot where she had last seen the elusive figure of her mate running away before he disappeared from her sight.

"Mom?"

As soon as she heard Mufasa's voice calling her, Uru looked away from the golden panorama and gazed at her son, lifting her ears up in the air with an attentive air working into her mellow features. "Yes, dear?" she asked nonchalantly, hoping with all her heart that he wasn't still worried about her or Ahadi's safety. The Queen absolutely hated when she was responsible for anyone's distress.

As if he wanted to dispel his mother's fears, Mufasa cracked a sincere smile. "What are you gonna name him?"

"We haven't decided yet," Uru replied, barely holding back a sigh of relief. "Can you believe it? _Three months_, and we haven't thought about a name yet."

Mufasa's grin changed into a knowing sneer. "You and Dad are lazy, aren't you?"

"Dad's much lazier than me. And don't you forget it."

The cub laughed at Uru's indirect remark towards the well-known childish nature of his father, and then stared at the lioness' stomach, once again struck by surprise and mesmerized by its very voluminous size. Strangely, Mufasa had never noticed that before, but the sudden proximity to his mother allowed him to calculate approximately the baby's effective physical dimensions. "Oh man, he looks really big."

Uru raised an eyebrow. "You were bigger. And heavier."

"Liar!" Mufasa laughed again, his tail twitching a little. "Dad told me that I was the cutest, smallest and lightest of all the beings he had ever seen."

In response, the lioness snorted. "That's because Dad didn't hold that cute little being inside himself for three whole months. If males could get pregnant, I bet that layabout wouldn't last a week without sniveling."

Mother and son laughed together, enjoying the fresh zephyr of the morning and the warmth of the upcoming sunlight; their shadows slowly retreated from their resting places on the ground as the sun rose up in the sky, its brightening colouration gradually morphing into a strong, burning gold. Uru, in the middle of her laughing, stopped abruptly and closed her eyes, her hind legs trembling slightly; the lioness managed to stand up, not being able to hide the abrupt, spine-wrenching pang of pain. As soon as he noticed the odd movement of his mother, Mufasa stepped towards her, feeling his old suffocating sensation of overwhelming worry violently emerge from his inner depths again.

"_Mom_?! Are you okay?"

"Y-Your brother..." she gasped, trying to catch her breath. _Ahadi... he's still away... _"I...I need rest."

"We should go inside…" Mufasa managed to murmur with a concerned tone as he beckoned at the entrance of the cave behind them. His mother nodded, then stumbled into the den, moaning softly at regular intervals. Mufasa followed her, not caring about the noise they were making. As soon as the darkness of the Pridelanders' lair enveloped Uru and Mufasa in its umbrageous, cool bosom, dozens of eyes shone inside the depths of it. Apparently, the others were just woken up by them.

"Mufasa, Uru, wha…what are you doing? It's really early and..." A lioness said, annoyed as the cub and the Queen awoke her with their treading. Mufasa turned his head and stared at her, looking a bit joyful, a bit peeved.

"Mom...th-there's something wrong with Mom!"

Every lioness hidden in the shadows approached them and looked at Uru, who whimpered softly as she let herself drop on the ground. Immediately all the lionesses went near the Queen and tried to reassure her, patting her gently and whispering softly in her ears. Mufasa wanted to see, but a lioness grabbed him with her mouth and took him out the den, completely ignoring his protests and his struggle to stay near his mother.

"_Hey_! What are you doing?! Lemme go!" he exclaimed furiously, stretching out a paw over the lioness' shoulder in his mother's direction. "Mom! Mom!" Mufasa cried repeatedly to no avail, as the hindering lioness simply rolled her eyes in a fed up manner.

"You can't do anything, Prince," she mumbled through his fur. "Just stay here and be good."

"But...but..." Mufasa stopped struggling and looked up at the lioness's face with burning tears filling his eyes. "Wh-What's happening to Mom?"

"Mufasa!"

The cub and the lioness jolted simultaneously when they heard a deep voice resounding abruptly through the air behind. Feeling the lump in his throat loosen a little, Mufasa turned round with a hopeful expression that allowed him to hold back his tears as he recognized the characteristic smoothness of Ahadi's tone. In fact, Mufasa saw a lion covered by light-coloured fur, his dark mane disheveled as usual and falling over his bright-green eyes and surrounding his proud neck, head and upper chest...his father. But he wasn't alone: from the summit of the lion's back, a strange creature whom Mufasa had never seen before jumped and, despite its apparent fragility, landed on the ground with extreme agility. And though it seemed to be a friend or at least an acquaintance of his father, that _thing_scared Mufasa in every way, most of all from its impossible ability to stand up on two legs instead of four, unlike any animal the cub had seen before. Mufasa winced when he looked straight towards the creature's face and noticed the absurd coloration of its deformed nose: vermillion as a clot of blood, and the equally weird blue lines which covered the thing's cheeks completely.

"D-Dad..." Mufasa shook his head a couple of times, as if he wanted to push out the image of the multicoloured creature from his mind. "Mom...Mom's feeling bad..."

Ahadi and the creature by his side glanced at each other for a brief moment, then looked at the fervent cub again. "Mufasa, you stay here. No buts," Ahadi stated firmly as he walked hastily towards the lair's entrance, eagerly followed by his eccentric companion, who was carrying a bunch of strange flowers and plants in one hand. Mufasa stared helplessly at them and bit his lower lip.

"Dad, w-wait..."

Ahadi froze and suddenly turned round when he heard the despair in his son's voice. His green eyes, filled with anxiety for the safety of his beloved wife and his still unborn son, met Mufasa's terrible glance...terrible, because Ahadi felt a painful pang in his chest when he saw the cub's mahogany eyes filling with upcoming tears of sadness and anger he had apparently held back until then. _He's just worried as anyone else...and he has no idea what's actually happening, _the lion thought, stricken with remorse. And it was his fault. "Mufasa..." Ahadi approached his son with slow movements and, before the cub could move away, lowered his head to nuzzle him. "I-I'm sorry. I know you're scared." He waited for his son's reply but, seeing that Mufasa simply fell silent, he continued. "Listen, Mufasa. You can't come with me..."

The cub moved his head away from Ahadi's muzzle and glared angrily at him. "Why?!"

"Let me finish, please." Ahadi sighed. "Mom's actually having the cub..."

"_Wha_...?!"

"...So it's better for you to stay here. It's just outside the cavern, right? The only difference is that you can't see Mom. But you're still near her." Ahadi paused briefly. "Mm...let's come to an agreement, shall we? I'll call you when Mom's finished, okay? I promise."

Mufasa's furious expression mellowed and turned into a hesitant grimace when he looked up at his father. Why didn't his parents tell him about that? Could he actually trust his father at all? Mufasa's doubts elapsed as soon as the contagious smile on Ahadi's face warmed him from inside, though, exactly like the words of his mother had before... "O-Okay, Dad... I'll stay here," he said, managing to crack a tiny smile.

"That's my boy." Ahadi ruffled Mufasa's short tuft as he laughed heartily, but soon a timid cough from the strange creature, which had waited patiently during the whole conversation between son and father, interrupted the lion.

"Ahem. Ahadi, we must..."

"I'm coming, Rafiki." Ahadi gazed at Mufasa. "See ya later, little one." Then he turned round and quickly entered the cave, accompanied by Rafiki. Mufasa stared after them until the lair's umbrage finally swallowed their figures. Then the cub sighed softly and sank onto the ground, wondering if he chose right or he should have insisted and went to his mother's side.

_But it's too late, anyway._

Then...he heard his mother's scream.

* * *

"_A...hadi_...!"

"I'm here, Uru. Don't worry," Ahadi whispered softly in his wife's ear. Uru, who was lying down on the smooth ground inside the dark lair, gasped and growled now and then, while her dark pelt got soaked with sweat as never-ending minutes of agony passed with interminable slowness. Ahadi managed to not look away from her; every single whimper she let out, every crystalline tear she shed was like a blindingly painful stab in the gut for him, and seeing his beloved in so much pain made him suffer as well. When the aching lioness tried with much effort to speak again, Ahadi cut her off with a nuzzle and a gentle "Ssshh."

In the meantime, Rafiki approached the resting Queen and bent down on his knees to look straight into her crimson eyes. Uru returned his glance, confused and too tortured by the pain to even ask the who the strange baboon was. That guy definitely wasn't Elimu...

"Uru, can you hear me?" the stranger asked with a clear voice, smiling affably at her. "Nod if you understand." Trying to ignore the spine-wrenching pain flowing through her body like a river in a sudden spate, Uru nodded hesitantly. Rafiki sighed with relief and then plucked with careful consideration a handful of petals from a bunch of different flowers he was holding in his right hand. When his palm full of multicoloured, opalescent petals, the baboon shoved them into his own mouth and started rapidly chewing on them. After a few seconds, Rafiki extracted a small, marble-sized ball from his mouth and offered it to Uru.

"Come on, eat it," he said, as if being asked to consume the stomach contents of another animal was as commonplace as eating meat from a zebra. Uru stared suspiciously at him, but the pain was too unbearable and desperation forced her to gulp the medicine down her throat. To her enormous surprise, her pain began to subside. Rafiki noticed her grateful stupefaction and smiled. Very well, the painkiller worked perfectly. Time for the hard part. The baboon went by Uru's side and then behind her, the expression on his face resembling that of a martyr who was going to meet death itself soon. But Ahadi was too relieved to notice that: his wife was suffering less, and that was, at the moment, the most important fact. "Thank you, Rafiki...but, did you really have to chew it up first?" He asked with a faint smile.

The pallid baboon settled behind Uru, and sighed softly, managing to take his time. "No... but I needed to calm down. Uru," Rafiki addressed her in a mellow, lower tone. "It is almost time."

"I... I know."

Rafiki nodded approvingly. Luckily for him, the lioness had already gone through that experience, so she knew exactly what was going to happen in a few minutes. "Very well then. We must be quick, de painkiller won't last for long. Tell me when you're ready." Ahadi, who felt completely useless, directed his worried gaze towards his wife, then Rafiki, then Uru again. The Queen noticed her husband's discomfort and with her usual kindness touched his paw with hers.

"D-Don't worry, Ahadi..." Uru said with an unconvincing smile. "I'm fine, really."

_I can't believe she's reassuring me...aren't I supposed to be the one reassuring her?! A great husband I am... _Ahadi lay down on the ground, in a crouching position, before the lioness and carefully intertwined his paw toes with hers. "Ssshh...you shouldn't struggle to talk. Just...just..." He gulped down the cumbersome lump located in the depths of his throat. He had to be strong. For her. "...Just live."

Uru held back a patronizing smirk and craned her neck to lick Ahadi's cheek in order to reassure him. In exchange, Ahadi responded immediately to her affection through a soft purr, letting the soothing deepness of his voice cuddle his beloved...exactly like the moment when they had consummated their love for the first time. Then she turned round her head and murmured slowly at Rafiki "I'm...I'm ready, Rafiki." In response to her, the baboon lowered his eyes and breathed deeply, as if he was the one who had to give birth. That was just absurd, but...he could almost feel the same fear, the same anxiety of Uru as he opened his lips to pronounce the strangely curt order.

"...Push."

The lioness clenched her teeth and finally found the strength to do what she had waited for such a long time, and now feared so much. Ahadi shivered every time he heard the muffled cries of pain that she let out repeatedly...

_She can do it…She can do it…, _his inner voice echoed through his mindless thoughts as a plea which he could use to be comforted with. The lion licked his mate again, trying to be as useful as he could. _I won't leave you alone._

For a while, Rafiki simply kept quiet and did not say anything save for an occasional "Stop for a moment" or "Push again". His expression retained a mixture of nervousness and concentration the entire time, with his lower lip clamped between his teeth and his brow furrowed and made humid by the constant formation of tiny drops of sweat that flowed through his dark-grey pelt and down his skin. He wouldn't run the risk of killing the Queen or her son.

Then...

"Ah-AHHH!!"

Ahadi jolted violently when he heard that terrible scream slip out through the clenched teeth of Uru, whose head wavered dangerously and eyes became abruptly dull, as if she was going to pass out. Without any care, Rafiki swore suddenly, but Ahadi couldn't see what exactly happened and, though he really wanted to do it, the lion couldn't leave Uru alone. Not this time. "Rafiki!" His voice faded away for a second. "W-What's happ..." But he fell into a horrified silence as Rafiki raised his arms for a brief moment and saw that they were...covered by thick, fresh gore till the elbows. How that was even possible? He hadn't gone that deep...

The flow of dreadful, unanswered questions inside his mind finally ceased as Ahad smelled the metallic odour of blood scattering in the air. Ahadi turned his head to glance at the baboon with a terrified look. "_Rafiki!_"

"Silence! I need to concentrate," Rafiki grunted as he stretched out a vermillion-covered hand and brought a handful of long, threadlike flowers and decapitated their calyxes with a single bite. Then, after a few seconds of rapid chewing, he applied carefully the ointment produced. In the meanwhile, Uru laid her head on the smooth ground, weeping silently and murmuring something incomprehensible. Feeling more worried he ever had before, Ahadi drew himself nearer to hear what his wife was actually saying.

"I...I'm sorry..." More clear tears flowed down her cheeks. Her voice faded away, trembled, slipped out of her mouth uncontrollably. "I can't..."

Ahadi shook his head in desperation, already unable to accept anything she was going to say. She could not surrender...she was stronger than him in every way. She was the strongest of them all. "No...no, don't talk, Uru...don't..."

A bitter smile broadened over the lioness' face. "...I-I'm a terrible wife, aren't I, Ahadi..."

"Don't...don't even think..." Ahadi's green eyes were beginning to fill with tears as well. "Listen, you can do it, dear. We've already gotten through this before, right?" He bent down his head once again to lick her. "You won't...you won't..." His voice died in his throat. He hadn't even enough courage to say "die". How pitiful. "No..."

_Like hell you won't die! _Rafiki thought furiously as more blood gushed out. He could feel the tiny body of the baby wriggling in his palms...just one more push. Then he looked at Uru. No, he wouldn't lose his patient...he wouldn't let her die, not without a fight. "You two, shut up!"

Uru ignored the baboon's stern order and proceeded with her harrowing speech. "A...hadi...d-don't worry...I-I am f-fine..." Her eyelids slowly closed and concealed her beautiful ruby eyes. Ahadi shook his head over and over again, feeling the most painful pang in his heart that he had ever felt. There was no way she was going to die. Not that day. Not before him.

...Not with Mufasa still waiting for her just outside that dark cavern.

"No..." He squeezed Uru's toes with his paw, and as soon as he noticed that her eyes were closed and her sighs was becoming more ragged with every breath...Ahadi lost control and finally let the upcoming tears flow spill out of his eyes. He couldn't believe at what he was seeing. That cave, that pitiful hole of jeering fears, where the most wretched worm on earth could lurk inside, would become Uru's silent sepulcher, made by blood and tears, anguish and shattered dreams. "...NO!"

_One more push. Just one more push... please... _"Take him away!" Rafiki ordered the other lionesses who surrounded the two monarchs; six of them finally broke free from the paralyzing spell caused by the terrible view of their Queen dying and grabbed Ahadi to move him away from the bleeding Queen. The raging lion roared savagely and even tried to hit his own companions with wrathful swings, but desperation and fear had weakened Ahadi and the lionesses simply outnumbered him.

"NO! NO!! URU!" The King roared over and over again, completely lost in his furor as he stretched out a trembling paw towards his beloved. "GET OFF ME, DAMN YOU! URU!" His sight went fuzzy and watery as tears flowed free down his face, like a bitter spring of sorrow condemned inevitably to go to waste. "YOU WON'T DIE, DO YOU HEAR ME?! YOU WON'T DIE! URU!"

"I-I lo...ve y-you...A-Ahadi."

Ahadi bellowed again, struggling and fighting desperately to get free from the other lionesses, who began to drag him outside. Rafiki had long ago broken the skin of his lower lip from the force of his teeth's grip on it. He was almost there…just one more...

A high-pitched meow echoed through the cavern. Everyone fell silent and stared at Rafiki, who picked up a tiny, dark fur-ball and carefully held it in his bony arm, sighing with relief as he wiped away some sweat from his brow. Ahadi gazed at him, totally astounded by what he was seeing...his son. His son was alive. A blissful tear, nearly lost amongst the other drops of despondency, ran down his face and fell on the suddenly cold ground. He was... alive.

_Uru... _The abrupt thought of his wife stroke him like a violent bolt of lighting and made him look towards her.

Her eyes were closed, with their crimson attractiveness concealed behind shut eyelids. Her head was reversed sideways, as if the vital strength of the lioness had completely deserted her.

She wasn't breathing.

"Uru..." Despite the pitiful, weak sound of his voice, so different from the usual, Uru didn't move at all. Rafiki stared at her motionless figure as well, feeling an overwhelming sense of failure enveloping him, and stabbing his back, like a foul, beastly traitor who finally revealed its monstrous nature.

Five seconds passed. Ten seconds. Twenty.

Rafiki lowered his head and clenched his teeth in painful awareness. _I've failed. She's... Uru is..._He fixed his exhausted gaze on his thin arms, on the blood which covered them until the sharp elbows... Uru's blood. Ahadi, as if he could read the baboon's mind, glared at him furiously.

"NO! Don't even think that..." He turned his watery look at his wife, and gulped. The lionesses had already loosened their grips around his limbs, but he didn't dare to move anyway. He was too frightened, too horrified by the truth, the growing consciousness which nailed his paws to the solid ground. "...No. She can't die."

"Ahadi...de cub." Rafiki murmured, imagining with a freezing shudder how Ahadi was feeling in that moment. The baboon stretched out his arms where the newborn was resting peacefully towards the shocked lion. But...

"…A-Ahadi?"

…_What?_

The lion lost his control once more time, but now that was a overwhelming, blithe sense of insane happiness that covered his eyes and swept away every other terrible thought of death...as soon as he heard the weak but still present voice of Uru resounding faintly in the air, a voice filled with emotion and force of life, a voice that made everyone nearly jolt with joy. Ahadi ran towards his wife, who was trying clumsily to stand up, and almost knocked her down on the ground as he hugged her, his tail whipping around like a dog's. Rafiki would have burst out laughing if only this wasn't the most poignant moment in his life.

The Queen...was alive. _Phew…it worked, _the baboon thought with relief, feeling like that sudden revelation had released him from the chains of direful nonachievement. That mixture he gave to Uru, synthesized by Elimu himself, was his last resort. And it had worked!

Uru's husband buried his moist face into her neck and kept sobbing "Uru... Uru...!" he coughed as he dried off his humid tears in her dark pelt. The lioness chuckled faintly as she tried to get rid of Ahadi and his painfully tight embrace.

"A-Ahadi...stop...that tickles…"

"Shut up," he shot back as he raised his head and looked straight into her eyes. They were both weeping. "You scared the hell out of me, stupid." Then he licked her cheek greedily, already thirsty for her wholly comforting presence. "I thought...I thought I lost you."

"Gee, thanks for the mistrust." Uru smiled as she nuzzled her husband with all the love she could give him. "But I thought that too, for a moment." Then she lied slowly on the ground, followed carefully by Ahadi, who apparently didn't want to loosen his grasp around her paws. "Ahadi, where is..._he_?"

"Here you are, Uru," Rafiki intervened promptly, quite surprised, seeing that he felt a blithe sense of pampering as soon as he saw Uru's glowing look gazing on her newborn. Rafiki always wondered how helping others would feel...and now, he felt it all, a pure spring that cleansed his soul. "Take a look, Ahadi."

_Oh my..._

Ahadi bent down to nuzzle his wife, still in a daze, and then looked at the cub, _his_cub, with a mix of surprise and eagerness. His son was covered by a fine, dark brown pelt like his mothers, and the fur around his mouth and on his paws was coloured cream white. Under his chin there was a small tuft, white as well. Though the newborn's eyes were still closed (and would remain closed for a while longer), Ahadi noticed, through a tiny, narrow opening, that they were bright green, exactly like his. The King nuzzled his son excitedly as he suddenly remembered Mufasa's birth. It was exactly the same: that feeling of anxious preoccupation, which seemed to overwhelm his senses and made his heart beat at breakneck speed; but Ahadi felt also that sense of pure, simple happiness, whose indescribable weight almost suppressed every other emotion... As the lion stared at his son, so similar to him and Uru, Ahadi simply stood there, unable to look away.

"Uru, he's...he's so beautiful," the lion murmured, proud of his consort. The dried tears whom he shed previously due to the fear of loss were about to be replaced by teardrops of rejoicing.

"Mm." she agreed faintly, looking up at her husband. Then a little smirk appeared on her pale face as she saw Ahadi's expression. "...Still daydreaming, I see."

"I... I...yeah," Ahadi managed to look away from his son, chuckling as he stared at Uru. "Yeah, a little." But before he could elaborate any further, the newborn yawned, opening his little toothless mouth wide and making his small ears twitch, drawing forth a chorus of "Aaww!"s from the crowd of lionesses around them. Uru's smile broadened. "So...I suppose we have to choose a name for this little sleepyhead, don't we?"

"Ummm..." Ahadi mumbled, scratching his chin with a long, black claw. "What about Taka?"

Uru bent her head sideways, with an eyebrow raised noticeably. "'Dirt'. You want call our son...'Dirt'."

Her mate rolled his eyes. "Come on, Uru! The meaning doesn't really matter as long as the name suits him." Then Ahadi winked at her. "Besides, you already got to pick Mufasa's name! Now it's my turn, isn't it?"

"You're no fun, dear." The lioness shrugged, snorting at him. Then she looked at her son, her red eyes shining slightly. "Alright, 'Taka'... I like it. And you like it too, don't you?" Uru murmured at the cub, who hid his head in the mother's chest fur, mewing noisily. "But as soon as you're grown up enough, just remember to smack your father for having chosen such a terrible name for you."

"It's not terrible!" Ahadi laughed as he raised his head and looked at the illuminated entrance of the den. "Mufasa! Mufasa, come here!"

Mufasa, who was still outside, immediately ran into the den and pushed through the forest of lionesses's legs as soon as he heard the loud voice of his father calling him. The cub was terribly concerned about his mother's condition, expecially after hearing his father's booming roars of despondency. "Lemme through, please! Lemme-" Then he popped up from between two lionesses, gasping for breath. Ahadi beckoned at Taka, smiling widely.

"Look. He's Taka, our new squirt."

_...Wow._

Mufasa stopped breathing deeply and stared at the brown little fur-ball between his mother's foreleg. Taka turned his head as if he was looking at the clear, orange eyes of his brother. Then he raised a frail, small paw and touched Mufasa's nose, tickling his big brother with his short fur. Despite that, Mufasa stood still and kept looking at Taka; he was completely stunned. He had never seen something so cute and defenseless before, not ever. As soon as he saw Taka, Mufasa felt an odd but somehow comforting sense of protection overwhelming him. He nuzzled Taka, who mewed again.

"I guess he likes you." Ahadi chuckled, nudging his son playfully. Mufasa ignored him, still speechless.

"A-hem." Rafiki coughed quite noisily, making everyone turn round to look at him. "My King, my Queen, may I...?"

Uru nodded, smiling gently at the shaman as he approached her. Ahadi raised an eyebrow, smirking. "I'm _your King_ now? Cool."

"Yes, formalities are _so _pesky," Rafiki sniggered as he split a mango he had brought with him in half, dipped his forefinger in its red flesh and dampened Taka's forehead with its juice. Then the baboon gathered a fistful of sand and scattered it on the cub's muzzle. Taka frowned and shook his head, annoyed by the dust. "Now, de presentation." Rafiki picked up Taka from Uru's arms and went outside the den. Mufasa looked around as everyone started following the shaman. Yes, shaman, because now Rafiki was a real shaman in all respects: after all, it was thanks to him that Uru and Taka were both alive.

"Be careful, Rafiki. I don't want my son to fall from the Cliff because of your...wait, how did Elimu describe it? Oh, yes. Imbecility, dumbness, lack of brain, idiocy…and the list goes on,"Ahadi called out with a smirk, feigning a serious tone. Rafiki simply waved his hand nonchalantly, not even turning round to look at the lion.

"Spare me your humour, Ahadi..."

"What, I'm not 'your King' any more?"

Rafiki grinned and fell silent, shaking his head slowly. Outside the Pridelanders' lair, the golden sun was shining vividly, proud and high in the immaculate, cloudless sky, inundating Pride Rock and the rest of the savannah prairie beneath with pure light, as if even Nature itself was celebrating the successful childbirth by showing off its luminosity in all its glory. The Pridelands' inhabitants were grouping together at the feet of the solitary mountain, mumbling with each other and wondering what was happening.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know...something important, definitely."

"Look, there's the whole royal family!"

Then Rafiki arrived at the very edge of the jutting cliff, holding the cub gently in his hands. Ahadi and Uru stood by his side; the Queen leaned softly against her husband's side, still exhausted from the effort of having given birth to a new life. Mufasa sat between his father's forelegs and looked up at him. "What...what's happening?" The cub asked in a low voice, pointing at the baboon.

Ahadi glanced down at his son. "He's..." But the lion stopped abruptly as Rafiki lifted Taka up in the air and out into the nothingness beyond the edge of the promontory, the little cub's small tufted tail dangling right the cliff edge. As the newborn looked curiously at the crowd below him, Mufasa gasped and stepped towards the shaman, but Ahadi blocked his advance with a strong paw.

"_What the heck is he doing_!?" Mufasa yelled, wriggling in Ahadi's grasp. Anyway, no one heard the cub's shout as all the animals in the savannah beneath them cheered, pawing the ground and letting out loud noises. Taka flattened his tiny ears and let out an annoyed mew as he heard all those new sounds.

Ahadi's eyes shone proudly as he lowered his head and nuzzled Uru, who simply smiled faintly and gently elbowed Mufasa. "Don't worry, Mufasa. It's just the ceremony."

"The...ceremony?"

Ahadi rolled his eyes. "Jeez, son, just chill out and enjoy the show." Before Mufasa could even think to reply to his father's words, the wind, which had placated since then, rose abruptly with sudden intensity, carrying a sweet perfume of flowers and an unusual coolness that made him shudder; Mufasa simply fell silent, not expecting such a turn in the weather. He stared at his father with a questioning look.

Ahadi returned his glance with a smile. "Your brother belongs to the Circle of Life now." Then he roared, a powerful rumble that immediately silenced every other noise. Everyone bowed respectfully before Rafiki as soon as they heard the King's roar. Despite the unsolved doubts and unanswered questions whirling in his mind, Mufasa hurried to do the same. He narrowed his eyes as the wind hissed in his ears.

_I will protect you, Taka...that's a promise._

* * *

It was hot.

Even though it was just daybreak's time, the sunlight was particularly intense and its warmth almost made the standing lion lose his bearings. The twisted shadows of emaciated trunks that had once been luxuriant trees lengthened and clawed at the ground with their elusive, black talons, the dying and dead boles dotting the deeply cracked ground every few meters. Ring-shaped flocks of vicious, foul vultures kept fluttering in mid-air and eagerly scrutinizing the wounded ground below, in search of fresh carcasses to devour without restraint. When those scavengers whose endless hunger would haunt them forever finally found some "food", they lashed out and thronged around their rotting meal, quarreling over two or three portions of fetid flesh and injuring each other with furious pecks and groping claws. The observing lion simply raised an eyebrow in disgust: vultures...disgrace of the animal kingdom. But he had neither the time nor the will to focus on those nauseating creatures. The dry wind, whisperer of death, shrieked persistently through the whole sun-bathed landscape, over and over again, as if it was trying to rouse the drowsy earth itself from its everlasting slumber. Yet that frail autumnal breeze could do nothing but ruffle the lion's reddish mane...nothing else.

...It was just too hot. Even the wind could neither refresh his seemingly lead-filled limbs nor refresh his thoughts and replenish his mind with soothing peacefulness. The lion was craving for just a sweet moment of complete, contemplative solitude...but he could not be calm, or alone, or at peace with himself. Not after what happened.

"Uchafu...dear, please, come here."

Again. The lion tried his best to ignore the tired, still tuneful voice that came from the thick umbrage inside the shadowy cave just behind him, and kept his eyes shut with persistent obstinacy. _Not now...I don't want...to see them...now. _So despite the pestering knot in his upper stomach that raised his reluctant grudge to a new level, he opened his eyes, grey and shining like iron, and looked again at the vultures' bedlam with a hateful glare. Those animals were slaughtering each other in a fascinating, mindless way...but on the other paw, vultures could be pretty entertaining as well when they wanted to.

"Ucchi! Get over here or I'll rip ya open with my own paws, I swear!"

A slight sigh escaped from his lips as he heard a deeper and more energetic voice shouting that awful nickname Rashad loved to call him. With deliberate apathy, Uchafu hesitantly turned round to face the cavern's entrance and stared at the elapsing darkness bound between those vacant, unsteady stony walls.

"You do realize who you're talking to, Rashad?"

"Tch! Don't even try to threaten me, Ucchi!" The lion's friend's hearty laugh echoed through the cavern's shades and outside till where Uchafu was standing steadily. "You like me too much to do whatever you're going to say."

Uchafu sighed again when he started walking towards the wide, dark opening where the rest of the pride—_his _pride—was resting, sheltered from the suffocating heat of the day. As the blackness and the comforting cool hidden beneath embraced his body, the lion's eyes managed to get used to the darkness and peek through it; then Uchafu rapidly counted the elusive shadows of his companions and realized how meager their number actually was. He saw the glistening eyes of six females, probably too much thin to be considered "healthy" but agile enough to survive in this cruel world that seemed to hate them so viscerally; the amber orbs of his friend Rashad, a large lion with a dusty-brown pelt and an unusually spotted mane, who was standing by the side of a resting lioness, his beloved mate Zena. They seemed quite busy gazing at and laughing over a smallish fur-ball nestled between the lioness' forelegs

_They look so happy... _But Uchafu looked away from them as soon as he heard the same, tender voice that called him before.

"Uchafu..."

_...Why am I not? _The lion rolled his eyes and turned his head to face her...no, it wasn't 'her' any more. It was 'them' now...

"I'm not deaf, Sauda. You called me like three times already," he mumbled softly when his eyes finally crossed with his mate's crystalline ash-coloured ones. The lioness with whom he was speaking was lying down on the floor just like the other females, letting out tired, drowsy breaths, as if she had just run ten miles and then stopped suddenly.

"Sorry," Sauda lowered her head. "But...I thought you would want to greet her."

Despite his growing nervousness, Uchafu managed to glance down, through the thick darkness which surrounded them, at the lioness' folded foreleg. One breath. Just enough time to take one breath...and he saw her. A small baby cub, covered by light-colored fur and huddled comfortably against her mother's chest. Her tiny head, as well as the rest of her body, looked so frail, so fragile...as if a single blow could easily crush her and squeeze the newly existing life out of her. Uchafu raised a paw, apparently wanting to touch the fruit of his union with Sauda, but then, unexpectedly and equally rapidly, he retreated it, wincing in dread. No...that wasn't possible. That wasn't right. The lion turned round and began to move away from his bewildered mate and his unsuspecting daughter, without saying a single word to either of them.

"Wait...Uchafu?"

"I don't care, Sauda. Greet her..." the lion muttered in a monotonous tone. "Tch. Nonsense. She wouldn't understand anything anyway."

Having the sensation of freezing water running down her spine, the lioness stood still, petrified by what her beloved just said, and managed to hold back the tears that were rapidly filling her eyes_. What...what on earth happened to him_?

"...Dear, wh-what's wrong?" But Uchafu simply ignored her trembling question and kept moving away from her until he went outside again. Rashad, who had been silent with Zena lying by his side during the whole 'conversation' between Uchafu and Sauda, stepped towards the luminous exit of the cave as well, letting out a yielding sigh and casting a resigned glare at the other lion's back.

"Don't worry, Sauda. I'll talk to him." The brownish lion winked at her and attempted to crack a smile. "He just needs time to realize he's a father now." His mate Zena nodded approvingly and grinned reassuring at Sauda, revealing a series of shimmering, snow-white teeth which adorned her mouth as a perfect combination of pure beauty and blunt killing power.

"Yup, Rashi's right. And, if that idiot still keeps acting like that..." The lioness snorted and flexed her paws menacingly. "Only Spirits know what I'll do to him."

Sauda gulped a couple of times, trying hard to not weep in desperation, and nodded slowly. "A-All right, Rashad, Zena...thank you." She smiled weakly. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."

Unable to hold back his characteristic modesty, Rashad waved his paw nonchalantly in the air. "Jeez, don't even mention it, dearie," he replied. Then he lowered his head towards Zena and nuzzled her. "But after that, it's my turn to watch over our little girl." The lion briefly licked his mate's cheek, then bent down further and also licked the tiny cub between the lioness' arms. "See ya later, little one," Rashad murmured gently in the baby's fluffy ear. His newborn daughter, a little bigger in size than Sauda's one, sluggishly rolled over and nuzzled his father with her damp, rosy little nose. When she saw that happening, Zena laughed quietly.

"Are you sure that you don't want to watch over her now? It looks like she's going to miss her daddy. I could go to talk with Uchafu instead."

"No, Zena, you need rest. And moreover," Rashad lowered his voice as he beckoned imperceptibly at Sauda. "I'm not really into females' stuff. But you...you might help Sauda with this situation. Okay?"

"Mm...if that's what you think is best."

"Perfect." He stood up and moved towards the exit. "Everything's gonna be okay, Sauda... Just chill out and wait here." Then Rashad disappeared when he went beyond the threshold where the intense sunlight outside and the muted darkness inside the cavern met each other, visibly marking the boundary between the dangerous real world and the peaceful island of tranquility nestled inside the cavern. Sauda sighed when he finally vanished into the warm morning light. In spite of not being Rashad's mate, she always felt sad whenever the brown lion went away or was missing for any possible reason. There was something in him that...was simply unexplainable. But most likely, Sauda thought that only because she tended to compare him with Uchafu, the kindness of one with the brusqueness of the other.

"Sauda…"

The firm but still mild voice of Zena abruptly woke her up from her daydreaming. Sauda shook her head slightly a couple of times before she opened her mouth to speak in a hesitant voice. "Y-Yes?"

A slight smirk widened on Zena's face. Uh-oh, bad sign. "You were not devouring my husband with your eyes…were you, dear sister?"

Sauda's eyes popped out from her head as she coughed embarrassedly and her face flushed a brilliant shade of maroon. "Wha...no! No, I was...gah!" She exclaimed later on. "Why am I even trying to explain? You'd tease me in any case, you little visionary."

"Yeah, probably...oh my, did you just wake her up?" Zena beckoned at the baby resting between Sauda's arms, who began to move slightly and let out soft mews of awakening. "Gee, you made too much noise, sis." Sauda groaned and lowered her head to nuzzle her daughter and calm her down.

_That's all we need, damnit..._"Shut up. And, just to point it out, I wasn't devouring anybody with my eyes." In order to look absolutely self-confident, Sauda shrugged slugghisly, without of course obtaining the desired result. "Why would I do that to Rashad, in any case?" As response, her sister Zena simply mimicked the clumsy attempt of Sauda to look indifferent.

"Oh, dunno...but it looked like you wanted to."

"I definitely did _not_."

Zena sniggered wickedly. "If you say so...just to underline the obvious, though, don't even think about yourself and Rashad together. Or I'll have to kill both of you."

"You shouldn't worry 'bout that. I still have..." Sauda fell silent abruptly, unable to finish the phrase. _...Uchafu. I still have him. _She managed to hold back a bitter laugh and simply lowered her head to nuzzle her daughter once more, who mews began to drop into a softer tone, as if sleep was about to finally enwrap the baby's naive, innocent mind with its fuzzy, comforting mantle. Zena bent her head sideways, confused by her sister's sudden silence.

"I know how you're feeling, Sauda…"

"No, you don't." The lioness shook her head and finally let the asperity and misery smoldering inside her show through the contrite appearance of a smile. "Rashad will always love you, no matter what. But Uchafu..."

"...Uchafu does love you too, silly. He's just...Uchafu. That's all."

Sauda glanced at Zena for a fleeting moment before she started cuddling her daughter again. "Do you remember when…the day when we met Uchafu for the first time?" Her sister's smirk broadened even more as she heard the hesitant question of Sauda trembling through the air like a butterfly inside a gust of wind.

"Of course. I remember also how you practically dropped at his feet like a swallow with a hernia."

Sauda managed to crack a smile too, but there was something different in her expression. It wasn't happiness, nor bitterness...it looked more like simple, pure melancholy that entrapped and suffocated her like a dreadful vice. "H-He _loved_ me. I knew that just by looking into his eyes...there was a flame that kept burning there all the time we were together." A hard lump in her throat tried to block her voice, but she gulped without hesitation and proceeded. "But now, that flame...is completely lifeless. Even when he looked at our daughter..."

"You're wrong, Sauda. Rashad, you and I know Uchafu too well, and we all know that he truly loves you," Zena interrupted her, firmly and at the same time calmly as only her voice could be. "There's no point arguing with fact."

Despite the whirlwind of bad feelings that was overwhelming her, Sauda found the strength to raise her head and stare at her sister...at her certainty, at her confidence that comforted the shattered lioness far more than Zena knew. Some time, filled with moving silence and upcoming tears, passed before she spoke again. "I-I...honestly, I don't know what to say..."

"'Thank you' would be nice."

After having dried the hot drops in her eyes through a throb of eyelashes, Sauda stuck her tongue out at her sister with a faint smile mellowing her sharpened features. "Yeah, but I won't give you the satisfaction. Sorry."

"Ho-oh! Such a insolent squirt we have here!" Zena exclaimed before she burst out laughing, being soon followed by Sauda as well. Their babies rolled over slightly over and over again, annoyed by their mothers' noise. Attracted by their movements, Sauda gradually stopped giggling and beckoned at Zena's daughter.

"So, what are you going to name her?"

Zena shrugged. "Aah, Rashad and I have been fighting over this ever since we discovered I was pregnant. Personally, I thought something like 'Chiku' or 'Fahari' would be great..." The lioness snorted. "...but that idiot wants to name her 'Haiba'. Can you believe that? _Haiba_!"

"Haiba doesn't sound so bad...."

"What the...what in the hell is wrong with everybody?!" Zena exclaimed, totally bewildered by the amused remark her sister gave her. "Who would name their child 'Haiba'? Come on! I bet even you wouldn't name your daughter that! And speaking of which…" She winked at her sister. "What are _you_ going to name her?"

"What? She's your daughter, not mine."

"I meant _your_ daughter, genius."

"Oh." Sauda looked down at the baby she was holding. "Actually, Uchafu and I didn't talk about that yet. But, um, I do have one nice name in mind, though I really don't know if..."

"...Uchafu's gonna like it? Come on, forget about that _grump_ and think for yourself!"

Sauda bent her head sideways. "Uh...so..I thought..."

"Yeees?"

"...Zira."

Zena narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue repeatedly, as if she was tasting the name over and over again, like a bloodthirsty predator would do with its slaughtered prey after the inevitable, brutal carnage. "Mm, Zira...that is a strong one. Very strong. Me likey. Why did you choose it, may I ask?"

_Probably because I'm not that strong..._The thought crossed Sauda's mind in an instantaneous flash, but she rejected it almost immediately. This was not the time for self-pity. "Honestly, I have no idea. It just slipped into my mind one day and...I felt like that would be the perfect name for this little fuzzbucket," the lioness chuckled as she tenderly nuzzled her daughter once again.

"Well, I think it's a great name, sis'. I bet Uchafu will love it too." Zena half bowed in direction of Sauda's huddled daughter. "Welcome to the world, Zira." Sauda laughed quietly when she heard that phrase, solemn in her simplicity, echoing through the cavern with soft kindness; then she raised her head and gazed at the small fur-ball between her arms with a loving expression.

_Yes...welcome to the world, my little, precious Zira. Welcome to the world._

_

* * *

_

* * *

Hehe, I've put a lot of personal stuff here...

Okay, finally the first chapter is done... Does the story look slow? Rethorical question, since the answer is pretty obvious. I know, this beginning seems a little too stationary... But don't worry, the "liveliness" (I couldn't find a better word... English can be damn frustrating sometimes xP) of the whole situation will come afterwards. Anyway, I hope this is not going to be an habit of mine... I'll try to fix this problem. I really don't like to subdivide chapters, but receiving 17000 words directly in your face doesn't look so good either, I guess. As always, remember to R&R and feel free to criticize anything you don't like. Once again, thanks to all the readers and reviewers. See ya in the next chapter :D


	3. Chapter 2: Weather Enemy, A Dance

Hello everybody! Sorry for the lateness, mea culpa. That happens when you write a chapter, read it, hate it, delete it and rewrite a new one, completely different under every single aspect of the previous one. And sorry for the harshness, but just now I am frustrated, disappointed and infuriated altogether, and writing is the last thing I want to do, thus I will be brief. First off: there is another introduction, yes; I must say, writing in first-person perspective is quite entertaining. I'm not going to add an introduction at the beginning of every chapter, of course, but I think I'll do it again, if you like it.

Second: thanks for the reviews, I do appreciate them :3

Enjoy!

* * *

I had never thought I would return to that place, that forbidden ground where a part of me died, was still dying, and would eventually die again. I was trapped, trapped in a vicious circle, a circle permeated by hazes of time, withered with it and imbued with new life, just to expire over and over again, eternally. Yet I decided to travel there anyway. The very reason? I did not know. I did not _want_ _to_ know. Probably, I was just missing them.

No one wanted, or dared, to follow me; the last thing I needed -or wanted, for that matter- was the sympathy or pity of anyone else. I was sick of that. I was sick of them all. Their vacuous, pathetic attempts to make me feel better were as revolting as their intrinsic hypocrisy, barely concealed behind hollow words of condolence and inadequate caricatures of smiles. Those fools were ridiculous parodies by themselves: parodies of friendship, love and support...parodies of people I really cared about. Every glance, every movement of theirs seemed distorted, forced, every grin a dribbling fissure of the sweetest venom.

Morbid flowers, and tender brambles: my so-dear acquaintances. There were still some flowers amongst the expanse of stinging nettles, yes….but it was only a matter of time, until even those colourful, frail blooms would wither and become dust to nurture the vile weeds. Still lost in my thoughts, I didn't dare to raise my eyes. To stare at the sky.

The sky. The sun. The Gods. The light, the dark, the same hatred. Everything bled together, twisted into dull streaks and deranged fragments of opalescent day-dreaming. Another rushed step, and the world changed before my eyes. I finally saw every single detail, every single particle, in all its vacuous immensity. The threadlike grass, the squirming worms, the air and the earth...me. None had a soul. None had..._life_. The Life of Gods, as the others called it. A beautiful, old-fashioned fairy tale, lacking of the brave hero and the beloved princess to rescue. Without light to be followed, and shadows to be chased away.

Souls as stars, stars as souls, eyes of Spirits and cages of Kings. What was their true meaning? What were they looking for? They danced and danced, overhead, elusive.

We naively swarmed on earth, wingless parasites dwelling inside its natural bosom, not even knowing the very reason behind that captivity. Hollow shells of mortal flesh, watched by their cold eyes, from their clouds, their ivory towers. They loved us, they punished us, they cast the first stones and then withdrew beyond the barricade of clouds. They gave us warmth, cold, gifts, curses, in a frenzied dance of irrationality, in a harmony of disorder, in a hierarchy of absurdities. Theirs and ours. It was we who created and moulded them, gave them life and drew them into existence from our countless, naive desires.

Finally, I raised my head. Just for one moment. Just for one second.

That afternoon was mild, effervescent and ventilated in an unusual way, accompanied by the ordinary zephyr of autumn. The sky was cerulean and rounded like a celestial, concentric sphere, peeking and gazing idly at the immobile earth beneath, completely covered by a golden mantle interlaced of fine grass, waving in the wind gusts like an immense yet nameless yellow flag. Feathery clouds, written down in rings and thrones on the azure screen, perched on their heavenly leaden seats, already heralding dreary eventides.

That season. My season. _Their_ season.

With autumnal leaves came a sweet lullaby, a song forged by their words. When...when they were still alive. They were still singing for me. Even now. Even the following day, and the day after, and the day after that, endlessly, in a chain of time. _Through_ time, I remembered; their love for autumn, their love for each other. I pursued them, enthralled by their affection, and shared my love as well for those fleeting, capricious months, crowned by gliding leaves and inspired melancholy. I let those buried memories unveil themselves and gush out of my mind, and immediately I felt a painful sensation tightening around my throat and suffocating me in my own shame. There were so many obvious things, so many useless words I wanted to share with them, only to hear their lively voices...just one more time. They seemed so distant now...far away, beyond the dance of memories.

My pace slackened slightly. Perhaps in a moment of weakness, I turned my head and looked back, as if I couldn't bear the feeling of being so close, almost intimate, to the place I chose for them. I glanced at my home, an indistinct speck on the feeble boundary between earth and sky...and turned my head again, somehow peevishly, and regained my rushed, unquiet pace from before. The twisted, intertwined tangle of golden grass blades bowed and fanned out quite easily as I passed through it, like a submissive subject would properly do in the presence of his King.

A King...

I would never forget the last words he murmured to me. _His _last words, pathetic in their sincerity, framed by his innocent blood when Death finally came, demon of the night, and accompanied his hopeless soul into its tenebrous realms. His look, altered, deformed by the inevitable dementia, and his mouth, whisperer of broken sentences...everything tasted bitter in my mouth. I would not forget anything about him, about them, no matter how painful the memories could be.

With a final, blind step forth, I stopped.

Why did I choose that place? Its true reason was unknown even to me. In all probability, I chose that spot for the sensation of humility it inspired. There was only one solitary acacia amongst the infinite, grassy ocean of the waving savannah expanse; it was modestly high, with its gaunt, almost completely bare branches penetrating into the ethereal flesh of the sky, looking more like lean roots sunk deeply into a untouchable, blue ground. An acacia, the symbolic victory of life against death. In that place. Pretty ironic, wasn't it?

Globular, gamboge-yellow flowers, probably at the end of their brief, unaware lives, constellated the wooden branches and crowned the collapsing foliage. I breathed in deeply to inhale that spellbinding fragrance of resin and flowers and dried leaves one more time. Their scent was addicting, captivating, gained control of me and let me off, then seized me again, like an imaginary game between me and nature, which made me close my eyes and fall into a state of unwitting hibernation. But the awareness of death, depicted on an intangible painting inside my head, finally roused me from my daydreaming and made me notice the pallor, the pallor that permeated everything around me in a greyish scenario, the inconsistent pallor of its ephemerality.

Under the somehow comforting umbrage, riddled with solar ruptures and projected on the ground by the sunlight, stood two medium-sized, round, dark rocks, so bare and dull that actually I felt ashamed of my own miserable attempt of giving them an adequate memory. My thought went fuzzy, confused; I simply stepped forward, hesitantly and timorously, until I found myself standing few centimetres far from those memorials. A single snow-white lily, with its rootage deeply sunk into the earth, was placed in front of each rock, withering memories of immaculate souls, with their ivory purity hedged by those pallid petals. Amongst the fine grass, a few, tiny shrubs of hawthorn, adorned with their white, dying stars, constellated the field around the tree. On the cold, hard skin of the memorial on the right there was, to disfigure its smooth perfection, a single, clear inscription, indelible and immune to the natural dance of time.

_Ruka, Kipepeo_

"Oh, Dad..."

That voice climbed up my throat, through my jaws, through my melancholy smile, and dispersed into the air, with nobody but two silent stones as only listeners. It danced, danced and did not stop. It sounded altered, foreign, yet I knew it was my voice. Slightly shaking my head, without looking away from that stone, I raised a paw and touched it. I could feel it, concealed behind the simple coldness and raggedness of the rock. I could feel the past mourning of thousands of people, who loved him more than anything else. For a fleeting second, a grimace deformed my features, as the wrath, the grudge, the resentment nestled inside me, beyond my shield of delusion, my only barricade.

Pathetic fools. They had no idea...they did not know him...like _I_ did.

There were no tears in my eyes. I had already shed enough woe during those years, and by then weeping was just a distant mirage. That thought crossed my mind as I passed my toes over that row of letters engraved on my father's memorial, slowly, meticulously, feeling its narrow, elegant groove under the sensitive digits. I did not know why, but suddenly, unconsciously, I tried to imagine what he would say about...about...well, everything. Everything that was happened. That was probably why I heard my father's voice resounding through my head, an echo lost in the timeless reminiscence.

_"What are you staring at, Momma's boy? Greet her, come on!"_

I turned my head and looked at the other stone. Yes, that would probably be what he would say to me, perhaps with even a laughter to complete the sentence. He loved to create new nicknames. Principally to annoy me, of course. I was his favourite victim, after all; that thought was still branded firmly into my mind, in a blend of amusement and sombreness. He was the opposite and the same of my mother. She always reproved him and then replied at his jokes with the same, cutting irony. My faint smile curled slightly into something more as I stared at her rock, simple and frugal like my father's, but lacking of any type of inscription. However, there was something else, a special tribute resting on it. A gift.

"Mom...sorry if I...haven't visited you for a while." I knew I looked like a perfect idiot, standing there and apologizing to none. As if they could still hear me. As if...they were still alive. "I...I don't k-know what to do. I d-don't know..." I gulped. "I can't...f-forgive him. I...won't..." My quivering words vanished in an instant when a butterfly, white and pure as snow just fallen, as the couple of lilies lying on the ground, popped out from the grass tangle and glided gently on my father's memorial, beating the immobile air with its diaphanous wings, ephemeral and frail like life itself.

It was dancing for me. It was dancing for everyone but me. It was dancing for none.

No...no, I was wrong. I finally realized it, as I felt, moment by moment, a burning sensation filling my eyes with drenched fire. Two warm tears flowed down my cheeks—I could feel them running through my pelt—and dripped on the ground where my parents, the sole lions I really loved, were resting peacefully. They were not living as grass blades, nor stars in the sky, nor anything else. They didn't deserve to suffer that torment...a second life. The only reward my parents deserved was peace.

I wept, I wept and smiled, like a small, wounded cub with his parents by his side, licking those incurable wounds in their usual, loving manner, in order to soothe his pain, and stared silently at those two mute stones, at that alabaster butterfly, at that necklace of mango seeds tied around the memorial of my mother.

...The necklace of an old friend, vermillion as a summer sunset.

* * *

_**Tears for the Tearless**_

**_Chapter II:_**

_**"**Weather Enemy**"**_

_**Part I:**_

_"A Dance that Never Ends"_

* * *

_I can't believe it._

His heart thumped furiously against his ribs, like a fierce beast trapped inside a cage; he could feel its pulsating beats increasing their rapidity as he let his grey eyes, wide-open in dismay, cast a horrified stare at that hollow, wizened groove cut into the wounded, sunlit ground. His thirsty throat twitched up and down a couple of times as it kept pleading him for vital liquid. But satisfying that need was not possible. He couldn't see the faintest trace of water inside the furrow, not even a single, crystalline drop..._nothing_.

Timidly, Uchafu turned his head and looked at his friend, in search of a hint of hope, or even indifference, working in his features. But Rashad seemed as worried and frightened as him; seeing his reddened expression and his eyes scanning the ground in desperate search of water was enough to prove that. Uchafu shook his head; what had he expected to find? The suffocating heat and the somehow heavy sunlight pressing on his back had probably gone to his head and befuddled him. A drop of sweat trickled from his brow down his face, following the pronounced texture of his lineaments, and fell on the ground, turning into a microscopic puddle destined to evaporate within a couple of minutes.

"U-Uchafu..." Rashad finally managed to take his eyes off the distressing scene before him and glanced at his speechless companion, looking like a completely different lion now with his usual radiance and carefreeness wiped away from his drawn face. "...How is this even possible?" His voice sounded strange, somehow terrified by the well-known, approaching consequences of that suspicious, unexpected disappearance. They were looking for water, _craving_ for water, and that river was supposed to be their last resort. And now...where was it?

Some time passed before Uchafu finally decided to speak. His tone wavered now and then, as if he couldn't quite take control of it. "I...I don't know, but...one week ago..." The lion's voice died in his throat as he looked away from Rashad and simply stood, motionless, with his back arched forward and his eyes nailed to his paws beneath. A sigh rang out when Uchafu realized his claws, two incandescent white razors in the sunlight, were unsheathed.

"Are you...listen to me, Uchafu. Are you absolutely _sure_ about that?"

Ignoring the overwhelming shock for a moment, Uchafu glared at Rashad with the corner of his eye and let out a low, throaty growl. He did not like Rashad's apparently neutral tone, nor the particular emphasis he put on "_sure_". At all. "What are you trying to say That I'm a...that I'm a _liar_?" He practically spat out the last word, his voice and thoughts blended in a mix of frustration and unintentional angst.

"Of course not," the other lion clarified with a careworn sigh. Here it was: Uchafu's daily tantrum. "But perhaps this is the wrong pla-"

"NO!" Uchafu snapped abruptly at Rashad, cutting his peaceful hypothesis off by slamming his paw on the ground with enough force to open a new fissure on the already cracked ground. The lion flinched in pain as he felt a few droplets of blood slowly seep out of the wound he just caused himself. Uchafu knew perfectly that Rashad was staring at him, probably with a pathetic face of pity, but he didn't mind very much. He had more important problems to deal with, actually; being the leader of a bunch of homeless outcasts, lost in a never-ending situation of extreme cold at winter and insufferable heat at summer, Uchafu was perpetually under great pressure, for hours, for days, for weeks. Moreover, two lionesses had died during the past few days, and only with great effort were their remaining living companions able to hold back their primordial urge to consume their now useless flesh. Disgusted by how low lions could sink sometimes, he simply growled again.

After a long silent moment passed, Uchafu looked away from his bloodstained toes and finally scraped together enough strength to rise to his feet, doing his best to remain (or, at least appear) placid. "I know perfectly well how to lead a pride, Rashad…don't even doubt me in that." He took a deep breath, and then proceeded with a softer tone. He absolutely had to calm down. "This is the right place, trust me. But..." The lion peeked again at the groove, hot and dry as before. Frustration boiled and raged in the recesses of his stomach, like a blustering ocean swallowed entirely by him. "...It seems like the water has just..._vanished_."

Unconsciously, Rashad's confused expression turned into a grimace when he heard the word "vanished". In one week? A whole river? How was that, as he already asked before, even possible?

_I...no, I...I don't know. _Nevertheless, he carefully concealed his skepticism behind a mask of impassiveness; he couldn't give Uchafu an excuse to get angry again. "So, what are we going to do now?" he asked simply, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably as he let some of his scorn escape into his rigid question.

As soon as he heard his friend's words, veiled by sarcasm, Uchafu suddenly regained the cold imperturbability characteristic of his nature as leader, and replied almost immediately. "We just have to find another place," he said. "Nothing we can't handle."

He turned round and set out for the remaining members of his pride, who were waiting patiently for the two lions' news. "We're leaving," Uchafu muttered without stopping. All Rashad did, a bit reluctantly at first, was nod subtly and follow Uchafu with lithe steps.

_No one knows what's actually happening to you, Uchafu. _he thought with a sudden sadness as he looked at the back of his friend. The intense sunlight lit Uchafu's red-tinted fur on his torso and mane, and made him look like a living, lost flame wandering amongst the scorching atmosphere of the Outlands.

_I...I just want to know. We just _want_ to know. _

The flow of his thoughts stopped abruptly as he noticed the vague form of a lioness, her face a splash of indistinct colour in the sunshine, approaching him steadily. Only by her smell could Rashadi tell that it was Zena, his wife.

"Rshad, what's going on here?" the lioness asked, noticeably puzzled by the sight of his gloomy face. "Is something wrong?"

The brown lion looked gravely at her. What could he say? "Apparently, the river which Uchafu told us about has..._vanished_." Rashad couldn't help pronouncing the last word with an extremely doubtful tone. "Gather the others. We're leaving."

Zena shook her head, letting out a disconsolate sigh. Frowning slightly, Rashad stopped following Uchafu and faced the lioness. "Rashad, I...I can't believe it," his mate said morosely. "This must be the fifth time this month. We can't just wander around these lands without a competent guide. Especially now, with Zira and Haiba among us."

"I know," Rashad answered, turning his gaze back to the rest of their pride. They looked even thinner than before, with their skin visibly drawn on the prominent bones due to the lack of nutritious food in that cursed land and their inevitably poor meals. Actually, Rashad doubted he looked any better than they did, seeing how his forelegs became increasingly thinner as hours and days fell into oblivion. Luckily for them, though, they weren't actually suffering from serious starvation or dehydration yet. But their final demise was only a matter of time, a death sentence separated from them by mere, fleeting moments: a couple more hellish days, perhaps even less, under that roasting sun, and they all would die without question.

Rashad sighed and shook his head, and tried to occupy his mind with other, more positive matters. "Speaking of which, the cubs are…"

"They're resting. Haiba is simply exhausted. And Zira...she almost passed out. Sauda is watching over them, but..." She looked back at two small shadows lying under the gaunt umbrage cast by a thin, bare tree located a few metres away from them. "I...I'm not sure if they can handle this pace much longer." Her voice trembled with badly concealed apprehension. "They're...they're only cubs, Rashad."

Sighing briefly, Rashad turned his head again and gazed tenderly at his wife. She looked extraordinarily tired: her sunken cheeks; her pelt, rippled in disarranged tufts; her moist, swollen eyes…every aspect of her expressed an overwhelming fatigue. Nevertheless, Rashad still thought she was beautiful, her luminous allure even more emphasized by the desperate situation they were living. Zena was his single last hope in that infinite, barren landscape…Zena, and their daughter, Haiba. His face rippled into a vague smile as he remembered the day when the lioness finally ceded defeat and agreed to his idea of a name for their cub. Come to think of it, he still didn't even know the reason behind Zena's distaste towards that name. He should ask her one of those days.

"Zena..." Rashad approached further and nuzzled her gently. "Don't worry, we'll find another place. We have just to hold out for a little while more." His honey-coloured eyes shimmered slightly as the sunlight skimmed over their smooth surface; seeing his wife in such an uncomfortable state hurt him more than anything else, like a horribly painful stake stabbing deep into his heart. "We _can_ do it. I _know_ we can."

The lioness glanced at him with eyes nearly completely drained of volition, trying to allow herself to be inspired by his impossible buoyancy. Uchafu had screwed up everything again, some of the others already died, and it was only a matter of time before they would meet the same fate. Still, he was able to smile, to keep living, without faltering for even a moment.

"A-All right...you're pretty convincing when you want to be, aren't you?" Zena laughed, cracking a grin and rubbing her nose back against his cheek. She then moved away towards the waiting group of lionesses, her smile trailing after her. Rashad stared at her for a brief moment, at first with an unusual blitheness working on his lineaments; then, like a beast in hibernation being slowly awakened by spring warmth, a nagging feeling of doubt crept into his mind as he started wondering if she, or even _he_, actually believed in his own words.

* * *

_Damnit. Damnit. Damnit._

"...Damnit." Uchafu hissed angrily at no one in particular as he felt the oppressive heat radiated by the sun weighing on his taut back with all its burning cruelty. Too hot. It was too hot. Everything seemed blurred and fuzzy before his eyes, as the daystar bathed every single centimetre of landscape in a blinding, luminous inferno. But every minute that passed meant another piece of vital strength draining away; he couldn't allow himself to waste time or get lost in useless thoughts. But that memory, the memory of that river, was still branded into his mind.

"I can't be wrong...that river was there one week ago," he muttered through serrated teeth, still unable to believe what he and Rashad had seen just a few minutes ago.

In the middle of a personal trip during the brief break needed by the rest of the pride, Uchafu had found a gurgling, beautiful spring of unpolluted water crossing that tiny part of the Outlands, coming down from the distant chain of dark mountains until that spot, then abrupty turning west, towards where they had already been. And now...now, it had simply disappeared. As if it had never existed.

Managing to emerge from those thoughts for a brief moment, Uchafu raised his head and stopped suddenly; he looked at the group of his pride companions, in search of his mate, but he didn't recognize her in that crowd of those faces, all similar to one another. Though only two of them died, their number seemed incredibly exiguous, like ten times more than before.

_I know...I know they're all blaming me for that. For everything. _The malicious echo reverberated through his mind, tearing apart the past preoccupation they brought upon him. They were disparaging his efforts; he was aware of that, of all of them. Still...still, he had to keep them alive, in order to fulfill his duty as their leader. "Sauda!" He barked, leaving those pessimistic thoughts in a distant recess of his mind for good; the least thing he needed was one more problem to haunt him. "Come here!"

"_U-Uchafu_...? Wait...wait a second."

The lion turned round, surprised as he heard Sauda's voice coming from behind him. _Isn't she with the rest of the pride?_, he though, struck by bewilderment. Uchafu frowned and stared attentively at the tree...no, at the umbrage cast on the ground, burnt from all its previous life, by that tree. Sauda was bending down over two smaller, prone figures, sheltered from the blinding incandescent blades of diffused light by the mellow, thin silhouette of the plant. _What_ _the..._"What are you doing?" he asked in a tone much more polite than that of his thoughts (which he wisely kept to himself), being sincerely curious despite his raising annoyance, as he approached her under the shady freshness.

Sauda glanced absent-mindedly at him (or glared? With those unflappable eyes of hers, gray as the grayest dawn, he couldn't tell at all) and then immediately turned her gaze back to the two minute forms at her feet, completely immobile excepts for their bellies, moving at the same time of calm, serene breathes of slumber.

"Ssh, they're sleeping."

Peeking at those, Uchafu raised an eyebrow and finally recognized the two sole cubs belonging to his pride. The lion was pretty surprised he didn't identify them by smelling their scents yet, but apparently his olfaction had already given up helping him since that heat hit him with all its unreal strength. On the left, there was Haiba, Rashad's daughter; with her eyes shut she looked exactly like a younger version of Zena, but with their lids open it was possible to see that she had, not ash-coloured eyes like her mother's, but instead a pair of deep amber ones, like two lustrous drops of resin. And, on the left, letting out soft breaths of approaching awakening...

Zira. _His_ daughter.

He sincerely didn't know what was the very origin of his..._fright_, if it could be called that. As his eyes ran over her relaxed body, along the tender, infantile folds of her skin, along her immutable face, Uchafu felt a hard, dry lump pressing against his chest. Just like the many other times his gaze had encountered her already during those six, almost seven months. Uchafu shook his head; he couldn't allow himself to waste time brooding over that senseless, counterproductive fear of his. It was the heat. Yes. Only the heat.

"...Sauda," he murmured. He could barely even hear his own voice, so low and heat-ravaged. "We must go. Now."

Finally, the lioness decided to take her eyes off the two sleeping cubs and glanced at him in great surprise. "_What_?" Sauda gasped, her eyes dilating visibly as she stared at him, motionless, before her head suddenly sprang to attention as if a different thought crossed her mind. She beckoned back in the direction of the groove, from where Uchafu and Rashad had just come. "W-What about the river?"

Uchafu sighed and sat down. "We...well, ehm, it's...there's nothing up there." He motioned at the spot where he and Rashad had stared for endless minutes at that dry groove without saying a single word, in astonishment. "No river, no water..._nothing_." Uchafu's voice fell into a bitter growl in the last, rancorous sentence, as if it was all Sauda's fault. The lion did not know why—she had not done anything wrong, after all—but he couldn't help it.

"_W-What_?" Sauda stammered, unable to believe his words, so absurdly heavy in their simplicity, as her mind worked furiously to digest what she just heard. Twitching his drooping tail anxiously, Uchafu stared at her, and silently begged her to hurry up and agree to finally leave that place. But his mute hopes were for naught. The lioness did indeed hurry up, yes, but only to open her mouth and speak again.

"But, dear, look...look at us. If we...we...we can't-"

"Who said that?" Uchafu snapped abruptly at her, sick of her complaints. Her face slowly turned into a mocking mask with which he managed to conceal every haunting fear, every nightmare that plagued his mind. "_You_, Sauda? _You_ don't have any right to say 'who can' and 'who can't'. Only _I_ have that right." While he finally gave her his back, as if their conversation was already over, his eyes narrowed into two colourless fissures. "No more ifs, no more buts. Just do as I say."

Motionless, Sauda stared at him, with vacuous eyes decorating her petrified face...then she stopped him by murmuring a single question that echoed through the air like waves on the perfect smoothness of the surface of a lake. "W-What about Zira? She's…"

"You_are_ her mother, aren't you?" Uchafu sighed wearily as he turned around, purposefully slowly, to face his mate again. He was already fed up with their conversation; the silent, challenging march awaiting them under the scorching radiations of the sun didn't seem so bad now. "You're supposed to deal with that." The lion swung about again. "So do it."

"And...and _you_?" Sauda stepped towards him, raising suddenly her voice as well. Some lionesses turned their heads to focus their attention on them, but then averted their collective gaze as soon as they remembered they had to get ready for their awaiting trip. Uchafu shut his eyes closed as a soft sigh slipped through his lips.

"Yes?" The lion peeked back at her, out of the corner of his eye. That female could get so damn annoying sometimes. "What are you talking about?"

"_You_. You are her_ father_," Sauda said before hesitated slightly, as if she was trying to think of the right words to say to him. Whatever they were, though, they would surely be part of some heart-wrenching, tear-jerking supplication, just to make him feel guilty somehow. As usual, Uchafu might say. A shame it never worked, especially when he was in such an unpleasant mood; everything simply slipped over him as nervousness spread through his mind, like a gentle, unseen gush of wind. "She...she said your name in her sleep, you know." The lioness added later, in response of his obvious uncaring attitude.

The reddish-maned lion raised an eyebrow, but didn't even think of turning around to face her directly. Uchafu kept showing only his back to Sauda, unsure if he should brood over her words, or simply let his clear superiority preside over the lioness and force her to stop complaining. He could do that, after all. "...So what?" he asked as he finally decided to deal with her, face to face, maintaining an apparently nonchalant tone. "She was probably just dreaming. Or hallucinating. I wouldn't be surprised if this heat has warped her mind."

"Wha...no, Uchafu, she was perfectly sane." Her steely stare wavered immediately; his voice sounded so natural, so calm...so sick. There was something distorted there, something wrong intertwined around the actual sense of those words, but unravelling it and its thorny frame proved an impossible task for her. "I...I think she just misses you." A part of her mind was yelling at her to forget about it; a tiny voice inside her head told her she was venturing into dangerous territory. And Sauda knew that; she knew that contradicting Uchafu was anything but a good idea. But she was sick of this same old situation, of the useless hopes he kept nurturing inside their minds, of his uncaring behaviour towards their daughter. As long as Uchafu hurt her somehow, she could easily forgive him. But, if he hurt Zira...

A grimace deformed his features, his gray eyes narrowed, a scowl formed slight dimples on his frown. A weak, constrained laugh escaped from his thirsty throat. Every single movement of his body epitomized his disbelief and impatience. They were only wasting precious time. "Missing _me_? _Zira_?"

"Ha, you're surprised?" Sauda stated tartly, as she began to approach him with a slow, measured pace. Despite her devotion towards her mate, the lioness couldn't bear that uncaring voice, those annoyed eyes, those slipshod sighs of his any longer. It was as if he was actually doing his best to vex her as much as possible. "You've been avoiding and ignoring her since the day we started this _epic_ journey towards this _mythic _spring you sung the praises of for days." Sauda wore a false brooding expression as she kept coming nearer. "No, wait...I'm pretty sure you've been ignoring her since she was _even_ born!"

"I'm not…"

"_Shut up,_" Sauda immediately interrupted with a barely repressed growl. "It's me, _me_, who kept taking care of Zira all this time. It's _me_ who watches over her twenty hours a day. It's _me_ who feeds her, cleans her, would do anything for her." The lioness' eyes shimmered menacingly as she placed herself a few centimetres far from him. "But she's _your _daughter too, Uchafu. Rack your brain and tell me the last time you actually acted like a proper father." Her tail twitched and her claws unsheathed slightly, as soon as the restless lion before stared, open-mouthed and speechless.

"I bet you can't even do it," she sneered a moment later. "The only thing you're good at is leading us to places you've probably only dreamed about." Uchafu noticed with surprise how low her voice got as her accusing words passed through the row made of her clenched teeth. They sounded derisive, disappointed...as if he had done something _wrong_.

Stricken by dreadful awe, Uchafu held his breath and gave her a puzzled, dithered glare back, as if he was being torn apart by a devouring sense of indecision between two vital choices. The achromatic circles situated in the center of his face lost every single trace of th impassiveness they had previously held, and his ashy stare kept darting away from her every now and then, as if somehow he couldn't bear the sight of the lioness. Sauda had never acted like this, never; she always agreed with him in every matter he dealt with, every problem…everything. She had always behaved obediently and yieldingly, like any good mate should, and followed every order he gave her without hesitation. But now? Now it seemed like a completely different lion, a foreigner who had stolen her features and her voice, had replaced her.

Seeing Uchafu's silent internal conflict raging visibly over his face, a sudden, luminous thought struck Sauda from deep within the recesses of her mind, slicing right through her resentment in an instant. Did she...did she convince him? Did she _change _him? Was he finally the young, kind, loving Uchafu that she remembered from better days once again? She hoped so, for his sake, for her sake, and above all for Zira's sake. But as she dared to hope for the impossible, the crystalline idol she erected in her naive mind fell down and shattered into uncountable, meaningless pieces as Uchafu looked again at her, his pallid eyes hardened again by iron will as a terrible flame of authority, of power, flickered into his orbs, in a dance of wanted and willing malice.

"Are you finished, _Sauda?_" he intoned with an air of disinterest, as if their conversation had never happened. Sauda found that tone, tranquil and monolithic, even more threatening that the mocking one he had used before. The lioness knew all too well that his passivity was merely an act, the calm before the proverbial storm. She rapidly stepped back as her mate rose to his paws and started approaching at her, slowly and inexorably.

"I'm by her...no, by _your _side every hour of the day, trying my best to take everyone out of this goddamn place," he growled. His voice was raising dangerously again, exactly as she had expected, and this time even more harshly and vehemently. It was just a matter of time before he would explode. Bearing that in mind, Sauda stepped back again, surreptitiously glancing back over her shoulder for just a moment, towards the sleeping figure of Zira.

"U-Uchafu, I…"

The sides of his mouth curled into a fierce snarl. A savage face. The face of a predator. "And now, you dare…to blame_ me_?" he screamed, his voice finally erupting into a harsh and ruthless bark which made her—and the other members of the pride as well—jolt in surprise. As his advance towards her quickened, his grimace grew more resentful, more irate.

More hurt by the truth.

Stricken by panic, Sauda made one more trembling step backwards, feeling like she was walking directly into a gorge. She knew none of her companions could help her, or come to her defense. She was also aware of the foolishness of hoping to be able to escape, to run away from him, abandon him and his frustration and never look back. For there was her sister...Rashad...the others...and, above everyone and everything else, Zira. She couldn't leave her...to him. And neither could she do so herself...because even as he seethed and cursed at her, she still loved him. Even during his bursts of rage. Even then, with his eyes seeing nothing but loathed illusions.

_This is useless._

Without taking even notice of it, her legs abruptly gave up and stopped. Sauda raised her head, not fiercely, nor proudly, but somehow holding an appearance of gravity, solemnity, the same solemnity of a female consciously going against her mate. If Sauda could not get through to Uchafu by any other means, she could still stand up and face him. Anything but run away. On the other hand, Uchafu didn't seem to notice his mate's sudden second thoughts as he kept steadily approaching her. Only when she spoke again, after what seemed like aeons of silent breaths held back by spectating cowards, the enraged lion truly stopped, a few centimetres far from his mate.

During those days, those months, Uchafu had kept himself isolated from everyone else and from her, sometimes even mistreating her—but never touching her even with a claw—and, in the best of cases, completely ignoring her and their child. She did not know the very reason behind that awful behaviour of his, yet she loved him. Sauda still recalled, over and over again, the special moments they had before that situation, those situations. When that foreign rogue lion with the red-tinted fur popped out from nowhere and ploughed abruptly into the Outlanders' lives...then he was completely different. He used to be calm, carefree, but also somehow sad, nostalgic, as if he had lost a vital part of himself during his journey. Whenever someone tried to ask him about his home, his origins, he simply cast a weak, masked smile and turn his back...as always.

Sauda knew he loved her. She did not hope, in fact: she was _sure. _Uchafu told her so, after all.

"..._Hit me_."

The lioness could not tell clearly if those words she let slip through the tight fissure of her mouth were figments of subtle courage, or pure and simple idiocy. Why was she mocking him? What was the reason for the ingratiating words being clearly written on her inner eye, her mind's internal display, as if they were the perfect words chosen in the perfect moment? Everything, done perfectly. That...that was crazy. _She _was crazy. He could hurt her, beat her quite easily, in front of all the others. But from the recesses of her mind an intangible, faint voice kept calling her, and besought her to love Uchafu, to believe in him and in his possible change of heart.

The voice. The voice flickered, vibrated, _danced_. It danced, danced inside and outside her, enraptured her and filled her with something more. Something..._different_.

"Wha…" Clueless, Uchafu stared at her unyielding figure; at her eyes permeated by an unseen, boundless will; at her face, drawn and undernourished; at her utter impassibility. She looked completely transformed into a different being, radiating a force that she had never shown before then; Uchafu couldn't help gazing at her in sincere surprise. "What did you say?"

"You heard me," she stated slowly, her eyes heavy with nonchalance and her voice sounding just as extraordinarily calm, as if the two lions were merely talking about their last meal. "_Hit me_...if you can."

Uchafu barely held back a forced laugh. What was she driving at? "Do you really think I couldn't do it if I wanted to?" he asked simply, lifting a paw up in the air. As he did this, the lion scanned Sauda's face attentively, in search of any presence of regret, or fear, or anything else; despite his awful personality, Uchafu did hope, unconsciously, to find out something that could help him, give him an excuse for being so incensed, for hating her. But he found nothing; nothing, except for the same strength he had never seen pulsating in her. A creeping sensation of dubiety began to crawl across his insides as he stood still, wavering between the fragile pillars of his confidence.

"Uchafu! Wait!"

Surprised, the lion stopped abruptly and stood motionless, with his large paw immobile and raised up. Before his mate, like a living shield, stood the panting figure of a lion covered by brownish fur, with an unmistakable, slightly maculated mane encompassing his large head. Rashad? Was it him? Of course it was. Only he was brave enough—or stupid enough—to interrupt Uchafu. Not far from him was Zena, who was staring worriedly at them as she joined the crowd of speechless spectators.

"Rashad?" Uchafu fumed noisily at his friend after a fleeting moment of bafflement. The last thing he needed was another obstacle. "Get out of my way."

Rashad inhaled deeply as he managed to catch his breath. Apparently, he had tried to run as fast as he could to reach Sauda and protect her from Uchafu's fury, knowing too well that the lioness truly would rather let him beat herthan fight back against him. She loved him too much to even react to his chauvinistic arrogance. "Listen, Uchafu...you're right, okay? We...we are leaving, aren't we?" His amber eyes stared directly into Uchafu's, casting a falsely agreeable look. "We...we're just all stressed out right now. We need a place where-"

"I'm trying! _I'm trying to do it_!" Uchafu roared, his fury fully displayed in all its monstruosity as his pallid eyes focused on Rashad, who hurried to calm him down.

"We know that, Uchafu, Rashad countered. "We know what you've been going through since you became our leader." He beckoned at Sauda behind him. "Just...just don't take it out on Sauda." Rashad then glanced for a fleeting moment at Zena several metres behind them, noticing the dread in her eyes...the dread of her sister being beaten.

Uchafu narrowed his eyes as he returned Rashad's sympathetic gaze with one of suspicion. Then he looked at Sauda again, over Rashad's broad shoulder; the lioness' head was lowered down, as if a burden was weighing up on her and she was both physically and mentally bearing its terrible pressure. Heavy eyelids concealed her eyes, like fleshy curtains for two round, grey windows, and made her look like she was passing through a great suffering. Uchafu scowled at her, at that weakness her whole being personified; that was pathetic, completely pathetic, seeing how she treated him just a few minutes ago…but still, he couldn't help but feel somehow guilty.

"_Fine_."

Sauda's head lifted up immediately to look at Uchafu as she heard his bloodthirsty tone turning into a soft, curt mutter; when he moved forward and went past them without even deigning to cast her a glance, her eyes carefully followed his rushed movements as the hot, blinding light of the sun spread all over her face.

_What is he doing?, _she mused with curiosity and a hint of apprehension. Rashad gazed at his friend as well, but the brownish lion, on the contrary, was more tranquil. He already knew what Uchafu was about to do.

As soon as he stepped into the insubstantial shadow of the tree, and thus stopped feeling the torrid sultriness of the sun hammering on his back, Uchafu let out a sigh of relief. Was he really that desperate? Were _all of them_ that desperate? He was their leader, the embodiment of their hope, and he knew perfectly well how to discern good from evil. Nevertheless, it looked like he was doing it all wrong, with his prayers and promises of a better life for everyone simply evaporating under that summer sun and its hallucinatory heat...exactly like the river.

One more step inside the vibrant freshness, and he was there. Uchafu stared at the sleeping forms of Zira and Haiba with an indecipherable look, wondering how they managed to sleep right through the adults' reciprocal diatribe. Then, sensing the gaze of Sauda fixed on him, the lion bent down and quickly approached his motionless daughter.

Uchafu opened his huge jaws, revealing a row of lethal, sharp teeth, and surrounded his daughter's thin body in a warm, humid grip, taking care to not harm her in any way. Then Zira, with an abrupt twitch, awoke suddenly and her gaze, still clouded by her previous slumber, fixed on her father; Uchafu could easily tell she was extremely confused (and slightly unnerved too) by his unexpected vicinity. He pulled back and closed his mouth again. The puzzled scowl imprinted just above those glazed eyes of hers did nothing but intensify Uchafu's angst; whether he broadened his prospects or not, the lion kept feeling uncomfortable and awkward at the cub's presence. His constant struggling with the weights of two polar concepts—the duties of parenthood on the one paw, and his inner conflict on the other—had haunted him ever since he discovered Sauda was pregnant...since the fear had showed itself, in all its hideous, unknown blackness.

Zira's timid voice took Uchafu away from his tormented daydreaming. "D-Dad...?"

Uchafu looked intensely at her, but said nothing. With a fluid movement he carefully enclosed Zira's body by using his jaws as a impromptu vise; at first, Uchafu was about to pick her up, but then he stopped and managed to mutter something through her soft pelt.

"Ssh…sleep."

The cub glanced at him with a confused face, wondering if she was still dreaming, if this was all just a strange fantasy about her and her father and that odd tree towering above them. But the dubiousness soon was replaced by more pressing drowsiness, mainly due to the grogginess and exhaustion which had knocked her out—and, judging by the pallid haze depicted messily before her eyes, was still knocking her out—at dawn.

"Y-Yeh...okay," she mumbled. Slowly she nodded, smiling unwittingly, as the warmth radiated by his mouth's fleshy inner walls enveloped her and gave the little cub a sense of security she had never felt from her father before then.

A few metres far, Sauda almost gasped in surprise as she saw her mate picking up Zira from the scorched ground and carrying her away, with his mouth holding up the sleeping cub. On the other hand, Rashad simply smiled: there was still a hope for that stuck-up dunderhead, after all. The brownish lion turned round to look at Sauda with a reprimanding spark in his eyes.

"Hey, what were you thinking back there? He could've…" He stretched out a paw towards her, to comfort her somehow, but the lioness, letting out a frustrated snarl, gave her back to him and moved away.

"Leave me alone." Frozen words floated through clenched teeth, in suffocating air. A perplexed scowl appeared on his face as Rashad stared at Sauda's more and more distant form. Then he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Zena, who was still watching the scene from behind, tried to reach her sister, visibly worried and concerned about her.

"Sis'!" She called out loudly as Sauda continued to stalk away. "Sis, where are you…" But Sauda had already spoken her mind; she made her way through the stifling heat, towards the distant, lone figure of Uchafu, still standing at a proper distance from him. She knew. She knew that by the end of that day she would apologize to him for her outburst. And he would eventually raise an eyebrow, nod nonchalantly, and say, "It's okay," then both of them would fall silent, unable to finally bring their "conversation capability" to a new level.

Sauda knew. She was condemned, chastised by her own love. A puppet created only for entertaining, and amusing, and dancing a dance of mere illusion, and power, and love. The most sincere love, worth everything and nothing. She was already apologizing to him, in her mind; it would take little time to give those thoughts a verbal, physical shape. With tears came a bleary vision, which blent everything, the ground, the sky, her mate, into a watery grave, a grave for her memories of that day. A dance of blurred forms, light and dark, heavy and clear. And her sister's voice kept resounding into her, through her...outside her. The voice.

It danced.

* * *

This is all for now...I'm already writing the next chapter (almost finished), but I won't be able to write/read anything during the next weeks. Occupied. Just to point it out. Ehr, yeah. So, moving on, feel free to leave a review and tell me if you appreciated what was done here; I'm actually planning to change my mind (and thus the story flow/structure/whatever you like) following your advices/flames. Preferably advices, though XP

See ya in the next chapter, then!


	4. Chapter 2: Weather Enemy, Clouds of Dirt

_**Oh my God.**_

_**I can't believe it.**_

_**I've returned.**_

_**Can you believe it? I can't. OMFGROFLMAOLOL.  
**_

_**Nah, probably you DO NOT WANT to believe it. I know that. I bet you're like, "OMG IT'S HIM AND HIS SHITTY STORY GET IN THE CAR" or something like that, I really don't know. Come on, move your ** and get away before your eyes start bleeding. Go away...! GO AWAY! HOWLEY SHEETZ IT'S TOO LATE- *splatter/gore-ish moment*  
**_

_**Anyway, I could easily show off some shiny, brand-new (and totally believable) excuses to justify such an enormous delay (five/six months?), but -you know what?- I think I'll tell you the truth instead.  
**_

_**First: my connection SUCKS. I mean, it does really SUCKS. Seriously, I couldn't get a decent one with FF, and sometimes even with Youtube or Facebook. Ah, in case you still don't get it: IT SUCKS. That's why I didn't reply back to any PM.  
**_

_**Second: School, school, school, concerts, revelries (I don't even know if that's the correct word DX), getting plastered, and so on. No time for writing, in any case.**_

_**Third: Uuh, laziness?**_

_**Long story short, I'm sorry. I don't know if I'll ever be able to post again -the last time I was ready to write, my connection ** up everything, so...-, yet I'll do my best to continue this...story. Eh. My most sincere apologies go to Theundersigned, Nielae, MadAboutStories, etc etc... I swear, here and now in this suffocatingly hot bedroom, I'll R&R everything you've written so far during my absence. Just...just wait, for the sake of any God you have faith in. **_

_**...  
**_

_**Finally, it's new-chapter-time.**_

_**Hooray ._.'  
**_

_**I'm sorry for the shorty lenght, but, well, I was not in the mood for the usual 9000-words brick. Also, I wanted to keep it clear and short because I added new characters (DOOOOOOUUHHH), thus avoiding complications regarding the others characters' storylines.I don't want to make a huge mess with the story, the characters and other stuff by uselessly extending the chapters in futile descriptions or avoidable speeches.  
**_

_**Hope you still enjoy it, though.  
**_

* * *

_**Tears for the Tearless**_

**_Chapter II:_**

_**"**Weather Enemy**"**_

_**Part II:**_

_"Clouds of Dirt"**  
**_

Rain.

The first thing he could recall from the distant reminiscence of his birth was the unceasing drumming of rainwater against cold stone. The distant peals of thunder made his tiny body jolt in fright, their deafening booms resounded through his blind, infantile frame. Loads of drops collapsed outside his secluded refuge, the sky's vault opened wide to disclose its womb replete with water, dark and mesmeric like a prairie of violets blooms; a blessing of life for some, a sentence of death for others. All he did during those monotonous months was snuggle against the embracing presence of his parents, his sole beacons of light in that world of darkness, and resting in his minuscule cavern, comforted only by their warmth.

_Stop. Stop it._

Twisting through the earth, a new wind howled, pulled him back, blew dust and mud between his legs. His pelt was heavy, soaked, and cold, and the sudden surge did nothing but emphasize his physical suffering; he was aware of that, he tried to ignore it. He failed. His erect figure shivered noticeably amongst the fleeting, broken reflections of himself depicted on the curvaceous puddles that grouped around him. The roar of another clap of thunder reverberated over the landscape, soon followed by twin booms and flashes of lightning.

_I lived. They died. That's it._

Large pools of the darkest water spread rapidly on the ground, under a sky permeated by dying lights, under a cloak of rumbling clouds. Lightning wounded the sky, made it cry and weep and bleed its own tears, the rain his cruel yet loyal companion. The soil, impregnated by the heavy downpour, accepted its unparalleled ferocity, bowed before the tempest, and exploded concurrently with the drumming of rain, a dirge of timeless days. He looked around himself, overwhelmed with astonishment; that was incredible. The weather was incredible, with its force, its savagery, unleashed without any control over its own strength. He had been an impotent spectator to that fierceness many times, so many that he actually could not remember them all; though he still was amazed by it. He wanted to be amazed, because any alien thought that might brush himself aside from the pressing echoes of his parents and his past life would be cheerfully welcomed.

He stared up at the sky overhead.

Weather was his enemy, his eternal nemesis, yet an insoluble tie bound it to him, like a twisted symbiosis of some sort between the two of them. He cried whenever it cried, he felt better whenever it turned serene. They were one, yet they were also divided by an immutable boundary of hatred, toward each other, toward the world, toward destiny.

"...Ghubari! Ghubari, where are you...?"

His heart jumped to his throat as he swung about, as he heard that voice calling his name so desperately. The blurred contour of a medium-sized shadow came into sight, twisting under the force of the elements. Raising his voice tampered by the violence of the storm, he made a reluctant step towards the figure. Smelling her scent was no use, mainly because he already knew that it was her, but also because his muzzle was simply too drenched to catch anybody's odor.

"Here, Fadhila."

The being's outline jolted noticeably while the sound of his firm voice pierced through the pelting down of the rain. He scarcely heard a soft sigh of relief coming from her figure hidden behind curtains of cascading water; she was afraid, and excited, he could tell by her movements, her tone.

Who–or what—was Fadhila? Well, definitely not a lion. She presented herself as a "hyena", though Ghubari had never heard that term before, not even in the tales his parents used to tell him, when they were still alive. Her structure was strong, firm, and, whenever she desired, even capable of incredibly lithe movements full of grace and poise. Her body was covered by short, chocolate-brown fur spotted by darker, blackish stains. He liked her fur; every time a ravaging thunderbolt cut through the thick clouds and radiated its flashing, elusive light, Fadhila's pelt flushed into a soft violet coloration, as if vivid flowers bloomed all over her form and followed the grooves of her prominent features.

Three thin, long-ago-healed scars stretched across her cheeks from ear to ear, like grotesque smiles stitched onto her skin; her teeth were sharp yet disproportionate, set into huge maws strong enough to crack open and crush a giraffe's impenetrable bones with a single bite. Nevertheless, the very first thing on which anyone's look would fall immediately was not her appalling appearance, was not her scar-marked face…but her eyes. Her eyes, two blue pearls streaked with grass-like green specks. Whenever he stared at those pure jewels of nature, Ghubari felt a sense of peace, of tranquility, and every other feature of hers that would scare him to death disappeared and was engulfed by a haze of mysticism.

"Ghubari!" Fadhila approached him, with her two flashing blue eyes blending with the murkiness brought by the storm. Her voice, now taking on a reprimanding tone, came to his ears with the tender, light severity of a relieved mother. "Where have you been? We're late, and you shouldn't wander here all alone."

"S-Sorry, I wasn't thinking and…" His own eyes, gifted with a lapis lazuli shade of blue quite similar to the hyena's, cast an ashamed look up at her, and he slightly jerked his head to move aside the drenched tuft of his unripe, gray mane that, hit by the constant rainfall, had glued itself to his face. "…Sorry," he repeated, with his dripping head bent down, in apology.

Fadhia's reproachful stare soon subsided into a mellow gaze before she turned her head and peered back at an indefinite spot far in the distance behind them. The rainfall was too strong, too intense, the mists too thick; she could not see anything nor anyone but a soaked forlornness.

"Hey…hey, it's okay, don't worry," Fadhida murmured soothingly as she approached Ghubari and tenderly licked his muzzle as the rain kept mercilessly flogging their aching backs. "Let's move on, shall we? Making Tiifu wait ain't a very good idea, ya' know." Immediately raising his head, Ghubari focused on her figure and kept staring at her for a few moments, with only the roaring cascade of the heavens filling the deafening silence stuck between the two of them. Then he looked away, chuckling quietly as his blue orbs narrowed behind his recomposed tuft, and nodded.

"Mm."

The cavern hang heavy with shadows, the darkness that lay inside punctured by scattered cracks of grayish light; it was spacious enough to have its farthest corners engulfed in twilit gloominess, but still curiously warm and comfortable, as if that welcoming cavern was completely separated by the surrounding, freezing atmosphere. Apart from those scintillating dots that constellated the murkiness like stars in the sky, the only element of distraction from the engorging obscurity was the vitreous glittering of the countless pairs of eyes staring attentively at Ghubari and Fadhila.

Ghubari winced. _Why do they keep looking at us that way…_

There was little light inside, but the grey lion's eyes—as well as those of the hyenas, for that matter—had no problem picking out every little detail in the dark ambience: the driblets of rain that penetrated the stone and trickled around them onto the ground, the canine shapes of numerous hyenas who scowled at them, the humid walls of coarse stone…everything was clear, definite, especially thanks to their adaptation to the cruel, drenched infernothey were forced to live in.

The figure of a hyena, a large male covered by powdery fur and characterized by a hollow cavity near his nose that had once housed his right eye, stood proudly near the entrance; his remaining eye, black as the most secluded corner of night, welcomed the two newcomers with a glimpse that expressed a most sincere pleasure; whether it was to welcome them or to devour them, that was hard to tell, seeing his daunting appearance. Ghubari simply shuddered under his stare; Fadhila, on the contrary, smiled.

"Tiifu."

The male approached and reached the two of them with nimble, expertly measured leaps, with a warming gaze firmly fixed on Fadhia; despite his considerable physique, Tiifu did not emit a single sound as he came nearer. Then he put a massive, sturdy paw on her shoulder, gently, or as gentle as a multiple-homicidal mass of muscles, claws and teeth could be. "Well met, my friend," he murmured, his voice gruff and edged as if he was not accustomed to using it much. "How're you?" Tiifu's sole eye suddenly rolled and cast a fleeting look to Ghubari, a look full of serenity and, somehow, respect towards the grey lion. "Greetings, Ghubari," the hyena ruffled Ghubari's mane energetically, enough to almost tear his scalp from his head.

Ghubari's throat always became dry and ached whenever he felt Tiifu's piercing stare sliding over his form, and this time was no exception. Behind that single dark eye, the lion was certain that there was something else, something unseen but perceptible through a reciprocal trial of silent looks. "Ehm…hello," he stammered. His voice sounded weak in the air; he almost did not even recognize his own quiet timbre.

"I've seen better days, if that's what you're wondering about." Moving aside Tiifu's paw from her own shoulder with a rude shove, Fadhila sneered back at him, letting out a defiant snigger as her words resonated through the hollow walls. All she received from the male, though, was high-pitched laughter, in stark contrast to his usually hoarse tone.

"You're having a midlife crisis, aren't you?" he chuckled. "Isn't that sweet…"

"No. Hell, what are you talking about? I'm even younger than you…" she spat back, unable to conceal her growing smirk. But Tiifu limited himself to letting out even louder laughs and giving a playful blow to her shoulder. If that hyena owned a remarkable virtue, it definitely was a genuine good humor. "So, how has your journey been?" Fadhila then proceeded with a smile. "Good news from the north?"

Tiifu's mirthful expression immediately subsided and turned into a shadowy gloominess, while an uncomfortable silence substituted his past laugh. "Come, let's talk in a better place, away from indiscreet ears," he finally said after a couple of rapid glances around him. In response to the twin nods from both Fadhila and Ghubari, Tiifu was about to swing around; but then, seeming slightly preoccupied, he beckoned at the grey lion. "Ehm…could he…"

"No," Fadhila stated quietly, curtly cutting his question off. The glimmerings of the other hyenas' eyes immediately became more intense; none was brave or foolish enough to use that tone with their leader. Fadhila ignored them and hastily made up an acceptable reason. "Ghubari and I keep no secrets from each other." She cast a look down to the slightly smaller lion that stood by her side. "He goes wherever I go, he sees whatever I see…and he knows whoever I know."

The other hyena's single eye narrowed slightly, with the blackish deepness of its iris engulfing Ghubari in a thoughtful gaze; afterwards, he merely nodded. "Hey, you're the boss." After signaling for his two guests to follow him, Tiifu turned round and made his way into the darkness, followed closely by Ghubari and Fadhila. In the recesses of that murk Ghubari's eyes shone more vividly than anything else, like two azure falling stars in the night sky.

He did not really mind much what Tiifu said, or thought, in that fleeting moment of weakness; in the year since he had joined the hyenas' clan, he had gotten used to all the discrimination a young lion, unique of his kind in that part of territory, would receive from a bunch of mocking, sniggering assassins. He was alone, despite Fadhila and, why not, even Tiifu's presence. They perceived his distress, but they could not offer any help. Because they were extraneous. Because they were creatures who poked their noses in after the "accident", after the brawl, the fray. Elements of the discouraging panorama before the eyes of a beaten adolescent, together with frustration, shame, the blood of the fallen, _his_ blood. They could not do anything for him but work over in their turn those who dared to touch Fadhila's adopted son.

Pride.

His pride, his dignity, was wounded.

That was why he asked, he pleaded Fadhila to prepare him for future fights. He wanted, he _needed_to be ready for defend himself from those who hated him so badly. At first, the hyena pushed him away with an indifferent "no", but soon she realized how much that training would eventually help him. Under the constant, pressing storm of his requests, she finally gave up and took him as her disciple. Her words were deeply planted inside his mind, branded, still burning in all their truth:

"Tomorrow, you shall start. But in case you consider it as a reward or entertainment, I'll tell you now: it's neither one nor the other. You'll be nostalgic of those times when you used to scratch your belly and do nothing all day long…because there's no way to come back."

During their exhausting session filled with gasps, aching muscles, and inflamed scars Fadhila immediately noticed (not without a remote, complacent sensation filling her) the terrifying ferocity concealed behind the colourless fur and impossibly blue eyes of her adopted son. Ghubari was not a defenseless cub who needed help to make his own way through the world; an absurd wrath was nestled inside his body, an ire that could, without any doubt, turn him into a killing machine if left uncontrolled.

Once, during a hunt away from home, she found him in a pool of dark blood, sitting on a mass of mutilated corpses, faces and limbs, in a macabre spectacle of death. In all probability those were three or four zebras, but she could not be sure. The cadavers were unidentifiable, looking more like deformed shells of bleeding flesh and bones than real animals. Ghubari was there, gasping from crimson-stained maws, from where thick globs of gore kept gushing out and falling on the ground. How he managed to kill by himself such large animals all in the same time, Fadhila did not have the faintest idea.

That sure was impressing, and remarkable, but also risky. What if Ghubari, teased for the umpteenth time by the hyenas that still were not ready to accept the lion into the clan, would decide to quit with them once and for all? Day after day he grew stronger and larger, and sooner or later he would surely make them pay for everything, for he now had the will, the force, and the knowledge necessary to carry out such a suicidal massacre. The clan, and probably even the Council itself, would probably sentence the young lion to death without thinking twice…and she could not allow that. Thus she decided to develop his skills _further_, in a different direction...

…The _sangfroid_ of the assassin.

Ghubari was indeed perfect for evolving into the archetype of a superlative warrior. His sole shortcoming was a total lack of…"style", if it could be called that. Ghubari simply followed his instincts, his blood frenzy; he took his leave from reality and advanced into the blaze that burned inside him. And, when the blood hunt lost its thrill, he found himself exhausted, trembling, shocked by what he had done.

Therefore, for his good, Fadhila made the wise, yet hazardous decision to teach him a new, completely different level of the art of death. Thorough knowledge of the rudiments of combat was the condition he would achieve from the following lessons. A perfectly balanced control of his own body was essential: those who were not able to master it could not even manage to hold their own in a battle, let alone win one.

Grips, blows, kicks, leaps, somersaults, defense, tactics, how to look in one direction and strike in another: Fadhila taught him _everything _she knew about fighting, and not without a certain number of difficulties…and inevitable failures. The hyena was a severe, strict instructor, yet never did she make him take unnecessary risks: he was still her stepson, after all. Previously, Ghubari had never been interested in the physics of movement, resistance, or respiration; after a few lessons, though, he finally realized that such simple aspects were in reality the most important mechanisms of that complicated, tricky system that was physical combat.

Rule Number One: _prepare yourself._

Ghubari learned to use his body like an extremely complex machine that needed to be taken care of. He familiarized himself with the usage of the most precious gift he received from nature: his teeth. Admonitory bites, hostile bites, immobilizing bites, pressuring bites, lacerating bites, mortal bites…the grey lion soon became a master of his oft-underestimated incisors.

Rule Number Two: _relax yourself._

He learned to be calm, cold, to break off from the rest of the world; he stopped looking at it and began to _feel _it. He learned to slice throats without emitting a single sound. He learned to lay ambushes. He learned to control himself even during the most critical situations.

Rule Number Three: _enjoy yourself._

He learned to be a perfect murderer. And he loved every second of it.

Enjoy it…

After a couple of minutes, accompanied by silent steps on the bleak ground, Tiifu suddenly stopped under a circle of twilight, a tranquil, silvery glade in the middle of a forest of shadows, and cast a wide grin at his two followers as his head swung around to peer at them. "Please, have a seat." He nodded at two large, greasy pieces of bloody meat that were lying on the floor, in the vicinity, ready to be eaten by the guests. "Hope you're hungry."

Ghubari hurled himself toward the nearest portion, tempted by its plump and appetizing appearance. Soon his teeth were sunk deeply into the flesh as the young lion began to tear apart generous morsels of sinew, nerve and muscle. Fadhila and Tiifu stared at him, slightly amused at the sight of his swishing tailand obvious eagerness for food. If there was something that Fadhila had never been able to teach Ghubari, it definitely was how to eat properly in the presence of others.

"Your numbers seem diminished, Tiifu," Fadhila said, breaking the silence between the three of them. She was moved more by a nagging hunger for news than a firm intention of creating a conversation. Tiifu heard her remark, but did not move, nor show signs of wanting to. "Where are the others?" she persisted, approaching him with unsure movements as her smile slowly began to wipe away at the sight of his vexation.

"Losses have been inevitable during these past weeks."

Ghubari immediately sprang to attention and left his portion of meat ripped open and ignored for the sudden sensation of occlusion he felt in his stomach. His ears twitched slightly under fine tufts of ash-grey mane. _What?_

At the sound of that cryptic statement, Fadhila's heart jumped to her throat. _No…no…_ Thousands of thoughts started racing through her mind in all different directions; Tiifu's warriors could not be dead. This was supposed to be a mission of peace. If they were dead…it was nonsense. And, even supposing that it were the truth, he could not use that neutral, nonchalant tone when speaking of his deceased companions. "What…what happened?"

Tiifu looked at her. Much to Fadhila's surprise, his fixed gaze vacillated for a moment, unable to match the pressing force of her glare. "Between the other clans reigns dissension, my friend," Tiifu said, breaking his visual link with Fadhila by bowing his head and closing his eye, seeming much older and more worn out than ever. "Hasimu's clan set an ambush in the proximity of the northern mountains." With a swift movement of his neck, he peered at her face, which was quickly turning from simple curiosity to dawning horror, and sighed again. "As we made our way out of a crevice, some of us fell directly into the trap and…well, I assume you can imagine the rest."

"Ha-Hasimu…?" she heard her own voice repeat in a choked tone, feeling as if she had just awoken from a dream. Hasimu was the chief of the clan settled in the utmost section of the northern region. "You mean…they attacked you?" Seeing no reaction from his motionless friend, Fadhila stood up and raised her voice. "Why would they break the pact like this?" Tiifu turned his strangely hurt gaze at her as she continued. "Why would they attack us?"

"They did not."

"What…" Fadhila didn't move a muscle until she realized the true meaning of that statement. What followed was a barely repressed growl from her, an indecipherable glare from a now standing Tiifu, and a confused glance towards both from Ghubari, situated between them with a piece of blood-stained gristle still dangling from a corner of his mouth.

"_You_ attacked them," the female hyena hissed. "How…how many other clans-"

Tiifu's black eye gave away a hint of shame. "All of them."

"_Why?_"

He winced at the sound of her furious tone. Being a chief, he was not used to being treated that way; yet Fadhila was firstly his friend, and secondly one of the most vaunted hyenas that all the clans had ever known. So Tiifu ignored her hostility and kept answering her questions. "I am nothing but a tool in the Council's hands," he waved his paw in a nonchalant manner, as if they were talking about the weather. "I strike who and where they direct." Nonetheless, all he obtained from the other hyena was another growl, now even more menacing than before.

"That's…that's not you, Tiifu."

Another sigh, another stare broken by the shame she compelled him to feel. "Fadhila, listen…I don't know what they're actually planning. I just follow the orders…and you're supposed to act this way as well—"

An abrupt movement interrupted him in mid-sentence, and he saw Fadhila begin to walk away from him, in the direction of the clouded exit of the warm, comfortable cavern. "I'll talk with them," she stated, with monolithic gravity, as more steps were made by her nimble legs. Tiifu immediately swung about and touched her hind leg, without daring to tighten his grip around it; to do that now would be an one-way ticket right to death's door.

"Fadhila," he pleaded, trying to sound as kind as possible. "You know better than me that it's a waste of time. Just bow your head down and please, _please_…surrender."

"Are you listening to your own words, Tiifu?" Fadhila almost screamed out all her frustration as his touch made her turn around to face him once again. "I can't follow their orders if I don't even know what they're supposed to accomplish. I can't accept that, Tiifu." Her aquamarine eyes, only a few centimeters from his, flared into two raging fissures. "I won't accept that."

"They have already forgiven your actions towards the entire clan when you accepted Ghubari as your son, even despite his…_nature_." Tiifu glimpsed briefly at the grey lion that in the meantime had approached Fadhila and was now by her side once again. "You owe them a favor…no, more than one. What about Ghubari? They will-"

Ghubari, biting his lower lip, rapidly turned his head to look at Fadhila. _Uh-oh._

Fadhila, growling furiously, pointed an unsheathed claw in his direction. A drop of cold sweat ran down Tiifu's brow as he gulped. "Say it," she snarled. "Say it, and I'll rip you open like a blade of grass." Her teeth were revealed, they showed menace, ire, fury. Pure animal wrath, barely controlled and dangerously potent. "Leave. Ghubari. Out of this. They…and _you_…will not use him to achieve whatever you're plotting."

"Fadhila…"

The female hyena only glowered in return. "Let's go, Ghubari."

Ghubari stared at her departing back for a moment, puzzled by her anger; his lost look s fell on Tiifu, who was gazing at Fadhila as well with a contrite expression printed on his grizzled face. The grey lion slowly and imperceptibly shook his head, feeling sorry for the hyena. _I should say something…?_

"Ghubari!"

He jolted at the sound of Fadhila's stern voice calling him and, after another sympathetic glimpse destined to Tiifu, he turned round and trotted towards the enraged hyena, outside, into the unwelcoming storm.

* * *

"For Gods' sake, Taka! Stop staring at me and get your buns over here already!"

The young lioness's brown eyes radiated alarming flashes of hostility as she glared at the two glowing green orbs opposite her cut across by long dilated fissures that were floating in the darkness of the cave. Another snort of exasperation escaped from her minute mouth when she seized the leg of the dead antelope that she was trying to carry inside the lair in her teeth and tugged again. She pulled and pulled with all her strength, but the constant force of the rain had apparently drained her force of will and the thrill of having succeeded in her first hunt without any help.

Under the two green eyes opened a row of white teeth, a grin, that shone through the night in a roguish way.

"I'm truly sorry, Sarabi, but ruining your fun hadn't even crossed my mind. Yet."

"Fun? _Fun_? You are a—" she began to yell and shout in Taka's direction, but a sudden loss of her balance made her fall into the squelching mud beneath. With a slight yelp Sarabi met the saturated ground with her face and chest, completely engulfing her cream-colored fur in drenching mud. Still semi-burrowed into the bog, she spoke low, slowly, almost giving out all her irritation through a mutter. "I bet you're enjoying the view, aren't you."

Taka, still concealed behind a curtain of shades, shook his head in denial, doing his best to suffocate his laughter. "No, no, no. What makes you think that?"

Sarabi raised her head and glared again at his obscure form. "Maybe the fact that you're grinning from ear to ear?" she spat, dirty water dripping from her face.

"But it wasn't meant to be a derisive gesture!" he countered as he waved a paw in her direction, though his smile actually managed to find more place on his face to widen and express his enjoyment. "It's how I support you in your toil."

"Of course."

"Sarabi! What are you doing?"

From the cavern's tenebrous maws stormed outside another figure, slightly larger than Taka's, whose dark-orange mane, still short and unripened, framed two scorching orange eyes that first cast a worried glance in the direction of the struggling lioness, and then a dangerous glare at Taka, whose grin, instead of an apologizing grimace, turned immediately into an even broader fleer.

"What sort of question is that, Mufasa?" he asked, scratching behind his tufted ear and assuming an innocent expression before the newcomer. "She's obviously picking up flowers for her Azure Prince."

"Uhnnngh!" Sarabi grunted again, without looking directly at Mufasa but greeting him with a pleading nod. She was definitely shattered, exhausted; all the adrenaline pumped inside her body during the hunt had lost its invigorating power and left her aching and gasping for air. Mufasa came immediately to her side and gently nuzzled her drawn back.

"Wait, let me help you. And _you_…" His orange eyes glimmered as he cast another glower destined to his smirking brother. "…were supposed to help her."

All Taka did in response was lie on the dry floor and stretch sluggishly in his brother's direction. His eyes did not break from Mufasa's as he began to nip at his own black-tufted tail, raised up in the air and left dangling near his head. "While I applaud your commendable act of chivalry towards our friend Sarabi, I must point out that Princes do not obey other Princes—AAGH!" Taka screamed out when a projectile of mud, lifted up from the boggy ground by Mufasa, arced directly towards him and hit his face with a squashing sound. Though the brown dirt in his eyes completely blinded him, Taka still could heard the muffled laughter of Mufasa and Sarabi, accompanied by the roar of the cascading rainfall, coming to him.

"You may applaud now," Mufasa chuckled.

"You…" Taka wiped away globs of muddy soil from his visual and glowered at his sibling. Drips of watery, sticky dirt completely covered his face in a mask of slop. "You will pay for this, brother." Taka winced and yelped when he sniffed his sludge-covered paw, with an expression of repugnance washing over his face. "Oh, perfect. Now I smell like—"

"Stop wasting time and make yourself useful," Mufasa interrupted, grabbing his brother by the scruff of the neck and dragging his light weight to Sarabi and her gruesome loading with ease under the drumming force of the rain. Taka tried to fight his brother's strength, but his slender build didn't help him at all in his efforts.

The feeble moonlight revealed him to be a pawing youngster, covered by fine, dark-brown fur, similar to his mother Uru's, except for his cream-colored paws and chin, with a slender body that expressed agility and elegancy much more than his larger brother's. Around Taka's neck was growing, slowly but steadily, a blotch of pitch-black hair, much similar to his father Ahadi's mane. Another feature that father and son shared was also the lively, green coloration of the eyes, though Taka's irises were noticeably darker and less shiny.

"Gah! Let me go, you stupid—"

Without much interest towards his brother's jerks and complaints, Mufasa opened his jaws and picked up a dangling, lifeless limb of the soaked corpse, near which Sarabi was waiting impatiently, and waved it in Taka's direction. "Take it," he ordered through his clenched teeth.

Taka glared with revulsion at the mud and grime that covered the antelope's bleeding flesh. "You are forcing me to do something that goes against all my ideals of cleanliness and decency. Are you aware of that?" He tapped Mufasa on his shoulder with his paw, foul with dirt that found Mufasa's orange-tinted fur and soiled it repeatedly. "Can you live with this weight on your conscience, Mufasa? Can you really do it?"

A smirk aimed at his brother played across Mufasa's face as raindrops slowly wiped away the dirt that Taka had deposited on his shoulder. "Yes. Yes, I can."

"HA-AH! Take that, Taka!" Sarabi burst out, blowing a loud raspberry in the dark lion's direction, jeeringly enough to make blood rush rapidly to his head in a flow of frustration. Taka glared at his brother, then at Sarabi, then at the dead antelope, and then finally, with much effort, he let out a yielding sigh.

"…Words cannot even describe how much I hate both of you."

* * *

**_Ah, Ghubari. Those who have read my old story should already know what is his role within the events, even though I slightly changed his character and completely altered his past. Hope you won't mind. Anyway, his role will still be the same, so... don't get panicked XP..._**

**_Please, R&R and... Oh, yes! Since I'm really, really SORRY for updating so late, I'm planning on starting a NEW STORY (which will be very succint and concise, I promise); if you want and_****_ if you have enough patience to read it, stay tuned and... well, we'll see. ;D_****_ I don't know if it's going to be connected to this fic or not, though... Aah, dilemma, dilemma.  
_**


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